MERCIER 


CHARLOTTE  KELLOGG 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


r-i 


MERCIER 

THE   FIGHTING  CARDINAL 
OF   BELGIUM 


MERCIER 

THE  FIGHTING  CARDINAL 
OF  BELGIUM 

BY 

CHARLOTTE  KELLOGG 

OP   THE    COMMISSION    FOE  BELIEF    IN    BELGIUM 

FOREWORD 

BY 

BRAND  WHITLOCK 

THE  AMERICAN  AMBASSADOR  TO  BELGIUM 


D.  APPLETOX  AND  COMPANY 

NEW   YORK  LONDON 

1920 


coPTHionr,  1920,  bt 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


PRIVTF.n    IN    TITE    TTWITEn   HTATES    OF    AMTRICA 


■7   /- 


By  the  publishers  of  The  Atlantic 
Monthly,  The  Outlook  and  The  De- 
lineator permission  is  granted  to  dse 
in  this  volume  some  material  which  has 
already  appeared  in  articles  in  their 
magazines. 


1927C19 


FOREWORD 

It  was  the  fate  of  Belgium  to  be  the  first  and 
in  some  ways  the  most  tragic  victim  of  the  war, 
but  by  that  very  fact  it  was  her  immortal 
privilege  to  become  the  symbol  of  the  great 
cause  for  which  the  war  was  fought  and  won. 
To  this  compensation,  there  was  added  the  dis- 
tinction of  having  produced  two  of  the  great 
figures  that  the  war  gave  to  history  and  to 
mankind.  One  of  these  will  stand  forever  as 
the  avatar  of  honor;  the  other  as  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  spiritual  ideal,  and  these  two,  rep- 
resenting the  Belgian  nation,  formed  an  im- 
pregnable bastion  of  truth  and  faith,  proving 
the  superiority  of  moral  over  physical  force. 
A  thousand  years  from  now  there  will  be 
poems  and  paintings  and  statues  to  celebrate 
Albert,  King  of  the  Belgians,  and  beside  him 
there  will  be  the  figure  of  the  great  Cardinal 
who,  while  his  King  was  fighting  along  the 
muddy  reaches  of  the  Yser,  held  aloft  in  his 
pious  hands  the  ideal  of  patriotism  and  endur- 
ance and  kept  alive  the  spirit  of  the  nation. 


viii  Foreword 

^Irs.  Vernon  Kellogg  is  one  of  those  Ameri- 
cans who  devoted  themselves  to  the  great  work 
of  ministering  to  the  needs  of  the  Belgians 
during  that  period  before  America  herself 
entered  the  war.  She  had  many  occasions  to 
see  Cardinal  INIercier  and  to  estimate  the  effect 
of  his  personality  and  of  his  deeds  on  the  peo- 
ple to  whom  lie  was  a  veritable  shepherd  when 
they  were  in  danger  of  being  scattered  abroad. 
In  her  "Life"  of  him,  one  obtains  a  closer  and 
more  intimate  view  of  his  character  and  his 
deeds  than  one  might  otherwise  have  done  had 
she  not  been  moved  to  write  this  book.  No 
one  is  better  qualified  than  she  to  speak  of  his 
courageous  work.  For  a  while  she  lived  the 
life  of  those  whom  that  work  so  greatly  helped. 
She  knew  of  its  need  and  was  the  witness  of 
its  efficiency  and  its  moral  beauty,  and  her  tal- 
ent and  her  devotion  combine  to  give  us  an 
inspiring  and  an  ennobling  picture  of  one  of 
the  finest  figures  of  our  times  or  of  all  times. 

Brand  Whitlock 


CONTENTS 

I.    The  Fighting  Cardinal 1 

II.     From  Boy  to  Cardinal 19 

III,  Pastoral  Letters  to  an  Imprisoned  People    .      .  51 

IV.  The  Cardinal  and  Rome  in  War-time     .      .      .  101 
V.    The  Good  Shepherd 115 

VI.     The  Cardinal  Versus  the  Governor  General    .  131 

VII.     The  Cardinal  at  Home 164 

VIII.     After  the  Arim!istice  —  The  Visit  to  America    .  175 

IX.     Trenchant  Sayings  of  the  Cardinal      .      .      .  198 
X.     Text  of  the  Christmas  Pastoral,  Patriotism  and 

Endurance 206 

Bibliography 248 


CHAPTER   I 

THE  FIGHTING  CARDINAI. 

"  Fourteen  years  from  to-day  our  King 
Albert,  standing  on  his  throne,  will  bow  his 
unconquered  head  before  the  King  of  kings." 
The  voice  rang  out  above  the  multitude  pack- 
ing the  Brussels  Cathedral  one  July  day  in 
1916.  "His  unconquered  head,"  —  and  we 
who  had  been  waiting  since  early  morning, 
anxiously,  fearfully,  to  hear  the  words  that 
would  come  from  the  great  Cardinal,  knew 
that  at  that  very  moment  the  gray  conqueror 
surrounded  the  Cathedral.  We  knew  that 
after  two  years*  martyrdom  of  the  body  of 
Belgium  that  conqueror  was  more  than  ever 
confident  of  breaking  her  spirit. 

We  had  been  standing  weary  hours,  scarcely 
able  to  breathe,  as  increasing  thousands  forced 
their  way  into  nave  and  transepts,  the  tense 
silence  of  our  waiting  in  the  solemn  half-light 
beneath  the  vaulting  arches  broken  only  by 

1 


Mercier 

the  whispered,  "  Will  he  come?  "  "  Will  they 
prevent  him?"  or  by  the  occasional  flashing 
rumor,  *'  Word  has  been  received, —  he  is  still 
at  ^lalines."  And  we  were  asking  ourselves, 
"  If  he  comes,  what  can  he  have  of  hoj)e  to  say 
to  us  in  this  black  hour?"  This  was  the 
86th  anniversary  of  Belgium's  indei^endence. 
Would  he  dare  to  refer  to  it?  I  had  come  to 
Brussels  some  weeks  before  as  a  member  of  the 
Commission  for  Relief  in  Belgium  but  I  had 
not  yet  heard  the  Cardinal  speak.  I  expected 
some  quiet  word  of  comfort.  Then,  flnall}''  at  a 
little  after  eleven  o'clock  our  waiting  had  its 
reward,  when  the  tall,  spare  figure  in  the 
scarlet  robe,  so  much  taller  than  any  about 
him,  appeared  beneath  the  velvet-covered  dais 
of  the  choir.  A  deep  breath  of  relief  stirred 
the  air;  he  had  succeeded  in  coming,  he  was 
safely  there!  After  the  opening  ritual  of  the 
mass,  he  left  the  choir  and  slowly  climbed  the 
narrow  stairway  to  the  pulpit.  Would  he 
allude  to  the  national  holiday?  These  were 
his  first  words : 

2 


The  Fightmg  Cardinal 


"  Beloved  brethren,  we  ought  to  have  met 
together  here  to  celebrate  the  86th  anniversary 
of  our  national  independence. 

"  Fourteen  years  from  to-day  our  restored 
Cathedrals  and  our  rebuilt  churches  will  be 
thrown  widely  open ;  the  crowds  will  surge  in ; 
our  King  Albert,  standing  upon  his  throne, 
will  bow  his  unconquered  head  before  the  King 
of  kings ;  the  Queen  and  the  royal  princes  will 
surround  him;  we  shall  hear  again  the  joyous 
peal  of  our  bells,  and  throughout  the  whole 
country  under  the  vaulted  arches  of  our 
churches,  Belgians,  hand  in  hand,  will  renew 
their  vows  to  their  God,  their  sovereign  and 
their  liberty,  while  the  bishops  and  the  priests, 
interpreters  of  the  soul  of  the  nation,  will 
intone  a  triumphant  Te  Deum  in  a  common 
transport  of  joyous  thanksgiving.  .  .  .  To-day 
the  hymn  of  joy  dies  on  our  lips.  The  hour 
of  deliverance  approaches,  but  it  has  not  yet 
struck.  Let  us  be  j)atient,  let  us  not  suffer 
our  courage  to  waver." 

Thus  swiftly  he  turned  our  faces  from  the 
3 


Mcrcicr 

darkness  of  the  present  to  the  visioned  triumph 
of  the  100th  anniversary  of  the  independence 
of  Belgium.  Outside  the  cathedral  walls  the 
gray  conqueror  Avatched  and  listened.  And 
even  inside  with  us,  we  well  laiew,  were  his 
agents.  We  held  our  breath  and  clenched  our 
hands  in  our  struggle  not  to  cry  out. 

Then,  having  by  the  i^ower  of  his  sure  faith 
fixed  our  eyes  on  ultimate  victory,  from  his 
lips,  touched  with  the  live  coal  from  the  altar, 
fell  the  words  that  restored  courage,  fortified 
the  will,  comforted  and  exhorted  the  spirit. 
He  announced  that  universal  brotherhood  was 
dominated  by  our  respect  for  unconditioned 
justice,  and  that  once  such  justice  was  vio- 
lated, for  the  guilty  there  must  be  retribution. 
ru])lic  retribution  for  wrong-doing,  he  de- 
clared, was  a  virtue.  This  utterance  was  like 
a  clearing  wind  to  many  a  confused  mind.  He 
led  our  thoughts  away  from  massacre  and 
agony  to  the  austere  beauty  to  be  found  in  a 
just  war.  He  pictured  the  people  rising 
through  it  to  ideals  of  justice  and  honor,  the 

4 


The  Fighting  Cardinal 


greatness  of  the  nation  in  her  sacrifice.  *'  God 
reveals  Himself,"  he  said,  "  in  these,  as  in  all 
events,  as  the  Master  of  the  universal  con- 
science." And  he  ended  with  an  ardent  appeal 
for  further  austerity  in  daily  living  and  greater 
unity  and  devotion  in  service.  It  would  be 
helpful  to  all  nations,  of  whatever  faith,  if  at 
repeated  intervals  they  would  re-read  this  July 
sermon  of  the  Belgian  cardinal.  Per  crucem 
ad  lucem  —  "  from  the  sacrifice  flashes  forth 
the  light."  And  how  admirably  his  own  life 
verifies  the  truth  of  that  title !  I  looked  down 
the  dim  nave  at  the  rapt  multitude ;  shoulders 
had  lifted,  faces  were  shining. 

From  the  pulpit  the  Cardinal  came  back  to 
the  choir,  or  to  the  space  before  it,  where  a 
catafalque  had  been  erected  in  memory  of  the 
Belgian  soldiers  dead  in  battle.  The  raised 
memorial  coffin  was  simply  and  beautifully 
draped  with  the  national  flag,  veiled  in  crepe, 
and  was  guarded  by  tall  candles.  Close  about 
it  pressed  the  first  men  of  Brussels,  the  city 
dignitaries.     The  Cardinal  took  his  place  on 

5 


Mercier 

the  choir  steps,  at  the  head  of  the  bier,  and  in 
a  voice  freighted  Avith  the  nation's  sorrow,  read 
the  prayers  for  the  dead.  These  had  died  on 
the  other  side  of  the  wall  of  steel  and  fire  that 
shut  them  from  their  seven  million  kin.  And 
the  living,  fighting  army,  with  the  King  and 
the  Queen,  those  still  were  cut  off.  From  our 
prison  we  could  send  not  so  much  as  a  message 
or  a  bandage  to  them.  There  was  danger  even 
in  erecting  this  symbolic  coffin,  and  in  reading 
before  it  the  praj^ers  for  the  dead.  I  looked 
again  on  the  sea  of  upturned  faces  and  read 
the  struggle  of  anguish  and  heroic  resolve. 

The  prayers  were  ended.  The  Cardinal 
moved  slowly  past  the  flickering  candles,  and 
turned  toward  the  rear  of  the  Cathedral.  Then 
suddenly  we  realized  that  he  was  going  from 
us,  back  to  INIalincs,  that  it  was  even  possible 
we  might  never  see  him  again.  And  with  that 
realization,  pent-up  tides  of  emotion  swept  over 
all  barriers,  as  in  one  great  cry  we  called  out 
the  forbidden  "  Vive  le  Roi !  "  and  "  Vive  Mon- 
seigneur!"     Men  thrust  by  me  whispering, 

6 


The  Fighting  Cardinal 


**  What  have  we  done? "  "What  can  we  do?  '* 
"After  two  years,  we  have  necessity  to  cry  out. 
We  must  cry  out!"  The  Cardinal  went 
swiftly  forward,  turning  neither  to  the  right 
nor  the  left.  I  was  following  close  behind,  and 
I  saw  that  his  cheeks  were  wet  with  tears. 

Outside,  to  pass  to  the  Archbishop's  palace, 
he  was  obliged  to  cross  the  road.  And  there 
those  of  us  who  had  come  by  this  door  were 
overwhelmed  by  the  crowd  from  the  main 
portal,  surging  down  for  a  last  look  at  His 
Eminence.  They  had  thrown  control  to  the 
winds  now,  and  were  shouting,  arms  outthrust, 
canes  and  handkerchiefs  waving,  as  they  called 
and  recalled  the  dangerous  words.  The  few 
Belgian  police  were  swept  off  their  feet.  Even 
the  Germans,  though  livid  with  anger,  were  for 
the  moment  powerless.  "  Vive  le  Roi ! "  *'  Vive 
Monseigneur ! "  echoed  and  re-echoed  about 
beautiful  Sainte  Gudule,  breaking  the  silence 
of  two  years.  It  was  only  after  the  gate  had 
closed  on  the  Cardinal  that  I  was  able  to  free 
myself. 

7 


Mercier 

The  world  knows  the  rest.  There  were  other 
manifestations  that  day,  throughout  the  city, 
which  had  suddenly  that  morning  blossomed 
into  green  (the  color  of  hope)  ;  there  were  in- 
dividual arrests  and  fines,  and  Brussels  her- 
self was  made  to  pay  1,000,000  marks.  All 
of  which  greatly  strengthened  the  national 
morale. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  Cardinal  ]Mer- 
cier  encouraged  these  outbreaks.  Quite  the 
reverse ;  his  coimsel  ^^•as  always  toward  wisdom 
and  moderation.  While  never  yielding  a  point 
in  submission,  he  yet  strongly  believed  in  the 
necessitj'^  of  maintaining  order,  and  in  preserv- 
ing an  attitude  of  calm  and  dignity.  Always 
he  counselled  against  the  folly  of  mere 
bravado.  Fearing  for  the  people  (not  for  him- 
self, we  well  know)  he  had  especially  asked 
them  to  promise  that  if  he  came  to  Brussels 
on  this  day  there  would  be  no  least  demonstra- 
tion connected  with  liis  appearance.  Long  be- 
fore, the  enemy  had  taken  care  to  warn  him 
that  innocent  parties  would  be  made  to  pay  for 

8 


The  Fighting  Cardinal 


his  behavior,  and  he  tried  to  make  all  under- 
stand the  risks  they  were  taking  in  acclaiming 
him.  The  Bruxellois  had  promised  to  remain 
quiet ;  but  his  own  example  steeled  their  hearts 
to  danger.  We  have  seen  how  splendidly  they 
broke  their  promise. 

I  have  seen  Cardinal  Mercier  many  times  in 
church  and  political  and  social  gatherings,  and 
on  several  occasions  in  his  own  archbishop's 
palace  he  talked  with  me  freely  and  generously 
of  his  work.  But  no  memory  is  more  vivid 
than  this  one  of  the  1916  service  in  Sainte 
Gudule,  when  in  one  of  the  darkest  hours  of 
the  Occupation  he  managed  to  come  from 
Malines  to  Brussels,  and,  appearing  in  person 
as  spiritual  chief,  caught  and  lifted  and  held 
us  by  the  power  of  his  fearless  spirit. 

Clearly,  here  was  something  that  might  well 
shake  the  confidence  of  the  Invader.  But  he 
failed  to  understand  it,  or  to  measure  its  j)ower. 
He  could  not  see  his  flashing  bayonets  grow 
dim  before  the  scarlet  of  a  cardinal's  robe,  nor 
hear  above  the  roar  of  his  Krupp  guns  the 

9 


Mercier 

rushing  of  wings,  as  the  souls  of  millions  rose 
to  the  call  of  their  leader. 

If  this  war  has  taught  us  anything,  it  has 
taught  us  that  peoples,  tortured  through  long 
years,  were  able  to  carry  on  to  the  day  of  de- 
liverance, only  because  of  a  spiritual  energy, 
born  of  an  unalterable  faith  in  God.  Doctor 
Ducamps,  during  the  war  director  of  public 
health  at  Lille,  voiced  this  coiiiinon  conviction 
when  we  were  talking  recently  of  one  aspect  of 
France's  problem  of  reconstruction,  that  of  re- 
claiming her  debilitated  children.  He  said: 
*'  I  myself  have  no  confession ;  I  may  be  said 
to  belong  to  no  Church;  but  I  am  absolutely 
convinced  of  this ;  if  we  are  to  save  these  chil- 
dren, we  must  give  them  religion.  All  through 
the  four  years  I  saw  proved  daily  just  one 
thing;  those  who  had  it  came  through;  those 
without  it  were  wrecked."  Belgium  under  the 
Occupation,  without  Cardinal  IMercicr,  as 
guide  and  support,  is  untliinkable. 

It  was  not  often  during  the  long  four  years 
that  His  Kminence  could  appear  at  so  import- 

10 


The  Fighting  Cardinal 


ant  a  gathering  as  this  July  one  in  the  Brussels 
Cathedral;  in  fact,  he  officiated  in  Sainte 
Gudule  perhaps  not  more  than  four  or  five 
times.  It  was  entirely  contrary  to  the  enemy's 
isolation  policy  that  any  person  in  the  con- 
quered territory  should  be  permitted  to  move 
about.  The  Cardinal  was  dependent  for 
journeying  on  his  motor,  and  during  at  least 
one  brief  period,  he  was  not  allowed  to  use  it, 
while  he  was  held  practically  a  prisoner  in  his 
archbishop's  palace  at  Malines.  But  the  Ger- 
mans were  playing  a  dangerous  game  in  touch- 
ing the  personal  liberty  of  a  prince  of  the 
Catholic  church,  and  they  knew  it.  How  mucH 
would  German  Catholics  stand  for?  How  far 
could  the  occupying  powers  go  without  stirring 
up  trouble  within  their  o\vn  frontiers? 

Moreover,  from  the  outset,  the  Imperial 
design  was  to  split  Belgium  in  two  and  by 
offering  the  Flemish,  strongly  Catholic  half, 
autonom}^  to  win  it.  And  since  the  people  of 
this  territory  were  led  by  the  priests,  it  was 
manifestly  unwise  to  anger  them  too  deeply 

11 


Mercier 

and  too  frequently  by  attempts  against  the 
liberty  of  their  Primate. 

Despite  difficulties,  he  succeeded  several 
times  in  going  to  Antwerp  and  Brussels,  and 
also  in  visiting  Vise,  that  sad  Pompeii  of  the 
north,  Liege  and  Namur,  and  Dinant,  Aer- 
schot,  Louvain  and  Termonde,  of  terrible 
memories.  There  were  wide  areas  in  the 
etapes,  or  zones  of  direct  military  preparation, 
including  all  of  western,  and  most  of  eastern 
Flanders,  where  not  any  Belgian  of  another 
district,  not  even  the  Primate,  could  set  his 
foot.  He  was,  indeed,  even  refused  permis- 
sion to  go  to  Ghent,  after  the  death  of  the 
bishoj)  of  that  city,  to  fulfil  the  important  duty 
of  consecrating  the  new  bishop). 

Early  in  1916,  he  announced  that  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  go  to  Rome  in  answer  to  a 
call  from  Pope  Benedict  for  a  general  confer- 
ence of  representatives  of  Catholic  colleges  and 
universities.  One  obstacle  after  another  was 
put  in  his  way,  ])ut  in  the  end  he  won,  and  per- 
mission to  travel  was  granted.    On  his  way,  he 

12 


The  Fighting  Cardinal 


was  acclaimed  with  loud  enthusiasm  by  both 
Italians  and  Swiss,  which  naturally  greatly 
disturbed  the  Germans,  who  already  bitterly 
regretted  having  allowed  him  to  go, —  they 
would  not  repeat  that  mistake.  The  return 
journey  was  beset  with  difficulties.  However, 
as  has  been  true  of  other  great  men,  their  chal- 
lenge had  a  tonic  effect.  And  he  brought  back 
from  his  visit  to  Rome,  as  the  lenten  pastoral 
of  1916,  "INIy  Return  from  Rome,"  so  nobly 
proves,  a  more  unshakable  faith  in  ultimate 
victory,  an  increased  fervor  in  his  effort  to 
secure  it.  More  ardently  than  ever,  he 
preached  the  virtue  of  patience  and  the  duty 
of  self-sacrifice. 

The  average  teacher  and  churchman  of 
sixty-three  (Cardinal  INIercier  was  born  in 
1851)  probablj^  would  have  been  content  to 
fight  his  fight  from  his  own  study  and  pulpit. 
But  it  was  necessary  to  this  zealous  shepherd 
to  be  in  the  midst  of  his  flock,  and  personally 
to  protect  and  guide  them.  He  called  on  in- 
ner sources  of  energy,  and  between  sixty-three 

13 


M 


ercter 


and  sixty-eight  worked  with  the  apparent  vigor 
of  a  young  man.  He  had  a  charming  way  of 
saying  to  us,  deprecatingly,  with  an  ahnost 
boyish  smile,  when  we  were  talking  with  him, 
"All,  but  3'ou  must  remember  I  am  old.  If 
I  were  young!  .  .  ."  And  we  smiled  back 
our  remonstrance,  grateful  to  him  for  demon- 
strating to  us,  as  he  did,  the  possibility  of  car- 
rj^ing  that  precious  thing  we  call  the  spirit  of 
youth  with  us  along  the  sixty-to-seventy  road. 
No,  Cardinal  ^lercier,  though  he  is  a  great 
thinker  and  teacher,  could  not  sit  in  his  study 
at  jNIalines.  He  resolutely  took  the  road,  go- 
ing from  church  to  church;  from  chaumidre 
to  chateau;  from  prison  cell  to  prison  cell.  My 
husband's  first  meeting  with  him  in  1915,  was 
in  Brussels,  where  he  had  come  to  visit  one  of 
his  priests  in  prison.  Seizing  his  loyal  priests 
was  one  of  the  enemy's  indirect  ways  of  strik- 
ing at  him;  and  their  danger  and  suffering 
were  never  out  of  the  Primate's  mind.  I  got 
my  o^v7l  first  direct  picture  of  his  priests  in 
trou])le  in  1916. 

14 


The  Fighting  Cardinal 


After  a  particularly  unnerving  day  at 
Tournai,  where  I  witnessed  the  eviction  of 
hundreds  of  families  in  preparation  for  the 
arrival  of  fresh  enemy  forces  from  Lille,  I 
turned  my  car,  with  a  longing  for  relief,  to- 
ward a  quiet  little  town  in  the  North.  And 
with  what  heartache,  as  I  remembered  that  in 
all  that  stricken  country,  I  was  practically  the 
only  woman  who  could  seek  such  relief!  The 
neutral  ministers,  the  American  members  of 
the  Relief  Commission,  and  a  few  physicians 
and  Belgians  directing  the  ravitaillement  were 
allowed  motors.  Mrs.  Whitlock,  the  wife  of 
the  American  minister,  could,  of  course,  ride 
in  the  Legation  car,  and  two  Brussels  women 
responsible  for  vital  relief  departments  had 
limited  district  permits, —  that  was  all.  And 
not  only  was  mine  practically  the  only  automo- 
bile carrying  a  woman  on  the  road,  but  I  could 
take  no  Belgian,  besides  my  chauffeur,  with  me. 
I  started  alone  in  my  car  for  Hasselt,  a  place 
of  17,000  inhabitants  near  the  Dutch  border. 

The  sky  was  low  and  gray  over  the  quiet 
15 


Mercier 

little  to^^Tl  when  I  began  my  rounds  the  next 
morning.  As  I  turned  into  a  street,  I  saw 
crossing  it,  about  three  squares  beyond  me,  a 
strange,  silent  procession.  I  hurried  ahead, 
determined  to  follow  at  an  inconspicuous  dis- 
tance. Clearh%  this  was  not  a  f  micral  cortege, 
though  resembling  that  more  than  anything 
else,  with  its  long  line  of  marching  people, 
over  fifty  on  foot,  and  the  black-covered 
wagons, — I  could  only  guess  at  the  two  or  three 
dozen  persons  inside.  In  the  line  there  were 
eleven  young  women,  and  I  counted  four  of 
the  Cardinal's  priests.  But  I  dared  not  follow 
too  closely  or  with  a  too  apparent  interest,  for 
the  line  was  flanked  and  led  by  bayoneted  sol- 
diers. No  to\vnspcoplc  came  near,  nor  could 
one  see  them  peering  from  the  windows.  The 
farther  I  followed,  the  more  deserted  the 
street,  the  more  terrible  and  unreal  the  whole 
spectacle.  The  dumb,  driven  line  with  tlie 
bhick  wagons,  spelled  terror  and  death.  Pres- 
ently, I  realized  that  we  were  approaching  the 
town  Tribunal  Hall ;  I  was  forced  to  stox^  bc- 

IG 


The  Fighting  Cardinal 


fore  a  wired-off,  guarded  park  in  front  of  it. 
Then  suddenly  flashed  before  my  mind  that 
early  decree:  "Trials  for  espionage  shall  be 
held  in  Hasselt."  And  I  sickened  Avhen  I 
remembered  what  espionage  had  been  made  to 
cover.  The  line  was  being  led  slowly  around 
the  square,  up  the  Tribunal  steps,  and  in 
through  the  judgment  door.  I  looked  across 
as  a  young  girl  was  going  in;  next  passed  a 
priest, —  had  he  comforted  his  people  ? 

Too  ill  to  stand  there  longer,  and  with  a 
kind  of  unreasoned  fear  at  my  o>vn  heart,  I 
turned  away  toward  the  edge  of  the  restricted 
area,  where  I  came  upon  a  group  of  women 
huddled  against  the  corner  of  a  building  as  if 
the  wind  had  blown  them  there.  A¥ith  their 
black  shawls  drawn  closely  about  them,  they 
crouched,  watching,  waiting, —  waiting  for  the 
sunset,  when  the  grscy  guards  would  lead  out 
the  line  they  had  driven  in  that  morning, — 
but  not  all  of  that  line. 

And  to-morrow  morning  they  would  huddle 
together  again  at  this  corner  for  just  these  two 

n 


Mercier 

gliinx^scs  of  their  loved  ones, —  their  going  and 
returning,  if  return  they  might,  and  always  in 
fear  lest  they  be  driven  from  their  corner. 
^Morning  after  morning  the  ever-diminishing 
procession  (for  each  day  some  did  not  return) 
would  march  from  the  prison  to  the  court- 
room, and  in  the  evening  back  to  the  prison. 
Until  its  unfortunates  had  ended  their  march- 
ing in  German  prisons,  or  against  the  wall,  or 
for  the  lucky  few,  in  at  least  temporary  free- 
dom. And  no  sooner  would  this  procession 
end,  than  another  would  begin  marching. 
These  were  the  Cardinal's  people,  these  were 
his  priests.  It  was  for  them  that  he  fought 
his  great  fight. 


CHAPTER  II 

FROM  BOY  TO  CARDINAL 

Even  in  his  cradle,  the  shadow  of  war  fell 
on  Desire-Joseph  Mercier.  He  was  born  on 
November  2,  1851,  a  few  miles  south  of  Brus- 
sels, at  Braine  d'Alleud,  on  the  southern 
border  of  that  field  of  glorious  and  terrible 
memories,  Waterloo.  And  he  was  scarcely 
nineteen  when  Western  Europe  staggered 
under  the  first  thrusts  of  the  Franco-Prussian 
war. 

That  his  parents  lived  near  a  famous  battle- 
field was  of  little  consequence;  but  that  this 
territory  was  a  kind  of  borderland  between  the 
differing  Walloons  and  Flemings,  from  whose 
union  modern  Belgium  was  born,  was  signifi- 
cant. The  Fleming- Walloon  fusion,  as  late 
distressing  events  have  amply  sho^Mi,  has  never 
been  complete.  Belgium  continues  her  strug- 
gle to  make  it  so.    That  Cardinal  Mercier  was 

19 


Mercier 

born  in  neither  an  extreme  Flemish  nor  a  dis- 
tant Walloon  outpost,  but  a  Walloon  near  the 
Flemings,  meant  that,  so  far  at  least  as  geog- 
raphy could  help,  he  was  prepared  to  take  his 
part  in  the  advance  toward  national  unity. 

There  was  nothing  in  his  birth  that  promised 
an  unusual  career  for  him.  The  jSIerciers  were 
intelligent,  industrious  and  devout  peoi)le,  de- 
scended two  centuries  back  from  French  stock, 
who  had  been  swift  to  join  in  the  struggle  for 
Belgian  independence.  His  grandfather  had 
been  for  many  j'cars  mayor  of  Braine.  His 
father,  it  is  reported,  had  a  talent  for  painting, 
but  since  his  desire  for  an  artistic  career  met 
only  family  opposition,  he  turned  instead,  in 
the  hours  not  spent  in  building  up  a  distillery, 
to  the  study  of  literature  and  mathematics,  and 
to  civil  engineering.  Desire-Joseph  had  two 
uncles  in  the  church;  one  of  his  mother's 
brothers  was  the  Doyon  of  Virginal  and  an- 
other half-brother.  Rev.  Adrian  Croquet,  went 
in  18o9  as  a  pioneering  missionary  to  the  great 
Northwest.    For  almost  forty  years  he  was  in 

20 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


charge  of  the  missions  of  the  Granderonde 
Reservation  in  Oregon,  in  whieh  new  land  he 
was  commonly  known  as  The  Saint  of  Oregon. 
The  Cardinal  resembles  this  micle  in  appear- 
ance, as  well  as  in  other  waj^s. 

Desire-Joseph  was  one  of  seven  children, 
four  of  them  older  sisters.  The  family  were 
living  comfortably  in  a  roomy  rural  chateau 
when  the  father,  Pierre-Leon  Mercier,  died, 
and  the  mother,  Barthe  Charlier  Mercier,  was 
left  to  bring  up  her  brood  of  seven,  alone.  The 
distillery  which  Pierre-Leon  had  hoped  would 
always  provide  a  comfortable  income,  had  to 
be  sold,  and  the  family  moved  from  the  large 
house  to  a  smaller,  simpler  one  near  the  church. 
We  are  told  of  the  brave  struggle  there,  and 
of  the  economies  practiced  so  that  there  would 
be  enough  money  to  give  Desire  a  good 
education. 

The  boy  Desire  attended  the  Braine  parisH 
school.  There  his  unusual  capacities  were  al- 
ready apparent,  and  it  was  decided  that  he 
should  go  to  the  seminary  at  Malines  to  com- 

21 


Mercier 

plete  his  classical  and  theological  studies.  To 
the  average  Belgian  family,  there  is  no  honor 
so  great  as  to  have  one  of  its  children  join  the 
priesthood,  and  Desire's  mother  in  her  prayers 
dedicated  him  to  the  church. 

He  was  nineteen  when  he  entered  the  Sem- 
inary, and  the  war  of  1870  had  begun.  Refu- 
gees from  the  invaded  regions  were  pouring 
into  Belgium;  the  agony  of  France  filled  all 
men's  thoughts.  The  calm  light  in  which  the 
mind  loses  itself  in  the  far  reaches  of  specu- 
lative philosophy  was  being  constantl}''  shot 
across  by  the  dark  shadows  of  the  tragic  history 
then  in  the  making.  Probably,  to-day.  Car- 
dinal ]Mercier  himself  would  find  it  diflicult  to 
say  just  how  this  war-experience  of  his  youth 
is  ^vritten  in  the  record  of  the  past  five  years. 
But  knowing  something  of  what  war  has 
worked  in  the  minds  and  character  of  our  own 
young  men  of  nineteen,  we  can  imagine  it  had 
no  small  influence  in  shaping  the  thought  and 
purpose  of  the  sensitive,  keen-brained  young 
seminarist. 

22 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


He  was  ordained  a  priest  in  April,  1874, 
after  having  convinced  his  superiors  of  his  un- 
usual talents,  especially  in  the  field  of  philoso- 
phy ;  and  they  arranged  for  him  to  go  on  from 
Malines  to  the  University  of  Louvain  for  ad- 
vanced work.  But  though  he  had  been  happy 
in  his  theological  studies,  philosophy,  as  it  was 
taught  in  both  these  Belgian  educational  cen- 
ters, brought  him  little  satisfaction.  The  fires 
of  original  and  stimulating  thinking  had  once 
burned  vigorously  at  Louvain;  but  toward 
the  middle  of  the  19th  century  there  had  been 
conflict  with  Rome  and  the  flames  were  almost 
extinguished;  the  earlier  constructive  effort 
gave  way  to  the  formal  and  lifeless  teaching 
the  young  Abbe  found  there. 

In  1877,  he  was  called  back  to  Malines 
Seminary  as  professor  of  philosophy,  where 
it  was  soon  evident  that  he  had  the  gifts  of  the 
great  teacher.  His  first  interest,  however,  was 
not  in  academic  achievement,  but  in  winning 
young  men  to  dedicate  their  lives  to  Christ. 
His  reputation  grew  swiftly  and  surely:  he  had 

23 


Mercier 

been  professor  at  ^Malines  only  five  years  when 
he  was  appointed  to  the  chair  of  philosophy 
in  the  University  of  Louvain,  a  surprising  call 
considering  his  youth.  And  there  he  at  once 
began  to  modernize  antiquated  methods  of 
instruction,  and  to  comiect  them  with  life  as 
he  saw  it. 

During  these  years,  Leo  XIII  had  been  fol- 
lowing the  j'oung  churchman's  progress  with 
satisfaction.  This  brilliant  pope  had  come  to 
Rome  at  a  time  of  great  poverty  of  thought 
and  constructive  policy;  at  the  beginning  of 
his  pontificate,  the  church  had  fallen  about  as 
low  as  a  great  society  could  fall.  Keenly  alive 
to  this  situation,  he  at  once  set  about  injecting 
new  blood  into  its  arteries.  He  strove  to  meet 
not  only  the  needs  of  the  hour,  but  those  of 
decades  hence,  so  that  his  great  encyclicals  of 
thirty-five  years  ago  read  like  messages  of  to- 
day. His  observations  on  statecraft,  for  in- 
stance, and  on  such  social  and  economic  ques- 
tions as  marriage  and  labor,  are  applicable  to 
our  present-day  problems. 

24 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


He  viewed  with  especial  concern  the  ever- 
widening  breach  between  religion  and  science, 
and  in  his  search  for  a  means  of  renewing  their 
shattered  alliance,  he  determined  to  revive  the 
study  of  scholastic  philosophy,  and  in  particu- 
lar, that  of  Saint  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  Angelic 
Doctor  of  the  Middle  Ages.  He  was  satisfied 
that  a  neo-scholastic  philosophy  would  re-dis- 
cover for  people  of  to-day  the  first  principles  of 
truth,  indicating  the  boundary  line  between 
them  and  error;  it  would  bring  intellectual 
order  out  of  confusion.  It  would  establish  the 
existence  of  the  supreme  being,  the  Creator 
of  the  world,  and  the  relation  that  exists  be- 
tween the  Creator  and  his  creatures,  between 
man  and  his  fellow-man. 

He  was,  moreover,  convinced  that  since  this 
philosophy  w  as  to  be  developed  in  the  light  of 
modern  scientific  achievement,  it  would  furnish 
a  basis  for  reconciliation  between  science  and 
religion;  it  would  act  as  a  mediator,  and  pre- 
vent a  continuance  of  the  great  damage  re- 
sulting from  their  divorce.    And,  at  the  same 

25 


M 


ercter 


time,  such  an  intellectual  awakening  would 
initiate  a  much-needed  reconstruction  of  social 
and  religious  ideals. 

Pursuing  these  convictions,  in  his  epoch- 
marking  encyclical,  Actcrni  PatriSy  issued  at 
the  beginning  of  his  pontificate,  he  vigorously 
exhorted  all  schools  to  return  to  the  teaching 
of  Thomistic  i^hilosophy.  But  he  well  knew 
that  schools  would  undertake  the  revival  with 
enthusiasm  only  if  an  inspired  guide  were 
found.  Where  was  he  who  would  lead  back 
over  the  old  way,  and  point  out  new  beauties 
and  hitherto  undiscovered  outbranching  paths 
along  it? 

In  1880,  he  sent  word  to  Louvain  University 
that  he  wished  it  to  create  a  chair  of  Thomistic 
philosophy.  The  University  listened,  but  did 
little  until  it  received  further  word  that  His 
Holiness  was  about  to  send  an  Italian  prelate 
to  take  the  chair.  That  stirred  its  directors 
to  action,  and  then  some  one  suggested  that  the 
Pope  would,  if  they  proposed  it,  undoubtedly 
be  content  to  have  the  young  Belgian  Abb6 

20 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


Mercier  instead  of  an  Italian  put  in  charge 
of  the  new  department, —  as  he  was.  And  so 
in  1882,  the  Abbe  went  to  Rome  to  hear  from 
Pope  Leo  himself,  the  plan  for  the  new  work. 
Archbishop  Hanna  of  California  was  there  at 
the  time  and  has  told  me  of  the  excitement  and 
expectation  aroused  by  that  meeting.  He  had 
been  sent  to  the  American  College  at  Rome  to 
complete  his  studies  in  Latin  and  Greek,  and 
he  and  his  classmates  had  sat  under  the  Pope 
and  listened  as  he  portrayed,  as  his  mind 
grasped  it,  the  future  and  its  necessity,  and  in 
a  voice  that  stirred  them  all  with  its  pathos 
and  passionate  desire,  had  often  asked,  *'  But 
where  shall  the  true  teacher  be  found?" 

And  then  one  day  they  were  told  that  he  had 
been  found,  and  they  lined  up  in  the  customary 
formal  opposite  rows  to  watch  the  long-hoped- 
for  leader  pass  through  the  hall.  "  I  cannot 
tell  you,"  the  archbishop  said,  "with  what 
eagerness  and  curiosity  we  waited  for  him.  To 
us  he  represented  the  incarnation  of  the  vision 
of  Leo.    And  now,  as  I  look  back  across  these 

27 


Mercier 

thirty  years,"  he  smiled,  "  I  especially  remem- 
ber saying  to  myself,  '  how  very  tall  he  is, 
taller  than  anyone  I  have  ever  seen;  he  has 
wonderful  eyes  and  a  broad  forehead.*  Yes, 
to  us  young  chaps,  Desire  INIercier  was  the 
tall,  thin  Abbe  who  would  make  a  concrete 
reality  of  Leo  XIII's  dream  of  revitalizing  and 
expanding  the  philosophy  of  Saint  Thomas,  of 
harmonizing  it  with  science,  and  both  with 
religion."  The  tall,  thin  Abbe  went  back  to 
Louvain  as  first  professor  in  the  new  depart- 
ment of  Thomistic  jDhilosox^hy.  And  it  has 
been  at  Louvain  that  during  twenty-four  years 
his  activities  as  thinker,  teacher,  and  church- 
man have  centered. 

To-day,  he  is  more  widely  knoMTi  as  the 
intrepid  champion,  during  the  war,  of  the 
principles  of  justice  and  freedom.  To  some, 
he  is  greatest  as  the  saintlike  and  tender  lover 
of  souls ;  but  many  of  his  closest  followers  still 
place  him  highest  as  the  teacher  of  Louvain, 
and  the  creator  there,  later,  of  the  superior 
Institute  of  Philosophy,  which  he  made  at  the 

28 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


same  time  an  institute  for  experimental  re- 
search, particularly  in  the  field  of  psychology, 
where  he  confirmed  the  Thomistic  principles 
which  he  assumed  as  the  foundation  of  his 
teaching. 

It  was  this  separate  Institute  within  the 
University  that  Pope  Leo,  wishing  to  give 
further  emphasis  to  the  new  teaching,  had 
asked  to  have  established  in  1888  —  just  eight 
years  after  he  had  started  the  work  as  one 
branch  of  the  general  curriculum  —  with  Pro- 
fessor INIercier  as  its  President.  To  prevent 
delay.  His  Holiness  opened  the  necessary 
building  fund  with  a  personal  gift  of  150,000 
francs.  And  soon  in  a  pleasant  Gothic  hall, 
the  master  was  able  to  gather  his  students  and 
organize  his  departments,  which  included,  run- 
ning parallel  with  those  grouped  under  phi- 
losophy, such  others  as  physics,  chemistry, 
anatomy,  biology,  mathematics,  and  social  and 
political  science.  He  was  happy  to  have  grad- 
uates of  his  o\vn  to  place  in  charge  of  the  divi- 
sions of  cosmologj%  physics,  scholastics,  and 

29 


Mcrcicr 

sociology.  The  Neo-Scholastic  Review  was 
to  spread  the  teaching  over  the  world.  For- 
tunatel}^  we  have  an  eloquent  statement,  in 
his  o\Mi  words,  of  his  conception  of  the  neces- 
sity and  purpose  of  this  new  school.  In  "A 
Report  on  the  Higher  Studies  of  Philosophy," 
after  reviewing  the  ininiense  field  open  to 
scientific  investigation,  he  says: 

"  It  is  imperative,  therefore,  that  in  those 
different  domains  we  should  have  explorers 
and  masters  who,  by  their  own  achievements, 
may  vindicate  for  themselves  the  right  to  speak 
to  the  scientific  world  and  to  be  heard  by  it; 
then  we  can  answer  the  eternal  objection  that 
faith  blinds  us,  that  faith  and  reason  are  in- 
compatible, better  far  than  by  abstract  princi- 
ples, better  far  than  by  an  appeal  to  the  i)ast: 
we  can  answer  it  by  the  stubborn  evidence  of 
actual  and  living  facts. 

"If  we  must  devote  ourselves  to  works  of 
analysis  we  must  remember  —  experience  has 
only  too  clearly  sho\\Ti  —  that  analysis  left  to 
itself  easily  gives  rise  to  narrowness  of  mind, 

80 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


to  a  sort  of  instinctive  antipathy  to  all  that  is 
beyond  observed  fact,  to  positivist  tendencies, 
if  not  to  positivist  convictions. 

"But  science  is  not  an  accumulation  of  facts ; 
it  is  system  embracing  facts  and  their  mutual 
relations. 

"The  particular  sciences  do  not  give  us  a 
complete  representation  of  reality.  They  ab- 
stract: but  the  relations  which  they  isolate  in 
thought  lie  together  in  reality ^  and  are  inter- 
woven with  one  another;  and  that  is  why  the 
special  sciences  demand  and  give  rise  to  a  sci- 
ence of  sciences,  to  a  general  synthesis,  in  a 
word,  to  Philosophy. 

"  Sound  philosophy  sets  out  from  analysis 
and  terminates  in  synthesis  as  its  natural  com- 
plement. .  .  .  Philosophy  is  by  definition  a 
knowledge  of  the  totality  of  things  through 
their  highest  causes.  But  is  it  not  evident  that 
before  arriving  at  the  highest  causes  we  must 
pass  through  those  lower  ones  with  which  the 
particular  sciences  occupy  themselves? 

"At  the  present  day,  when  the  sciences  have 
31 


Mercier 

become  so  vast  and  numerous,  how  are  we  to 
achieve  the  double  task  of  keeping  an  courant 
with  them  all,  and  of  sjuithesizing  their  results? 
That  difficulty  is  a  grave  and  delicate  one. 

"  Since  individual  courage  feels  itself 
powerless  in  the  presence  of  the  field  of  obser- 
vation which  goes  on  widening  day  by  day, 
association  must  make  up  for  the  insufficiency 
of  the  isolated  Avorker;  men  of  analysis  and 
men  of  sjTithesis  must  come  togeUier,  and 
form,  by  their  daily  intercourse  and  united  ac- 
tion, an  atmosphere  suited  to  the  harmonious 
development  of  science  and  philosophy  alike. 
Such  is  the  object  of  the  special  School  of  Phi- 
losophy which  Leo  XIII,  the  illustrious  re- 
storer of  higher  studies,  has  wished  to  found  in 
our  country  and  to  place  under  the  patronage 
of  St.  Thomas  of  Aquin  —  that  striking  in- 
carnation of  the  spirit  of  observation  united 
with  the  spirit  of  sjTithesis,  that  worker  of 
genius  who  ever  deemed  it  a  duty  to  fertilize 
l^hilosophy  by  Science  and  to  elevate  Science 
simultaneously  to  the  heights  of  Philosophy." 

82 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


Thus  he  determined  to  give  his  idea  concrete 
form,  to  make  it  visible.  He  would  house  phi- 
losophy in  a  local  habitation  along  with  science, 
whose  results  it  was  to  interpret  and  synthesize. 
And  with  the  theology  both  must  support, 
they  were  to  live  together  before  the  world,  as 
a  happy,  harmonious  family. 

Before  he  became  President  of  the  Institute 
of  Philosophy,  Professor  Mercier  had  already 
become  kno^\^l  on  the  other  side  of  the  At- 
lantic, and  when,  in  1886,  the  Catholic  Uni- 
versity at  Washington  was  founded,  Mgr. 
Keane,  its  first  rector,  earnestly  appealed  to 
the  Pope  to  send  the  renowned  Louvain 
teacher  to  the  chair  of  philosophy  there.  But 
he  was  not  sent.  Indeed,  the  Cardinal  has  made 
his  first  visit  to  America  in  this,  his  sixty- 
eighth  year.  How  often  during  the  Occupa- 
tion, we  Americans,  to  whom  he  always  gave 
such  friendly  welcome,  used  to  seek  to  divert 
his  thoughts  from  the  darkness  of  those  prison 
days  by  planning  this  trip  to  America!  And 
always  he  joined  in  our  planning  with  the 

33 


Merctcr 

quick  smile  and  eager  enthusiasm  that  make 
talking  with  him  a  refreshing  experience.  No, 
Leo  XIII  did  not  send  him  to  Washington; 
this  far-seeing  Pope  had  his  own  good  reasons 
for  keeping  the  philosopher  at  Louvain.  It 
was  in  this  same  year,  that  wishing  to  honor  the 
distinguished  young  thinker,  he  made  him  a 
member  of  his  household,  conferring  on  him 
the  title  of  jNIonseigneur  with  the  ecclesiastical 
dignity  it  carried. 

It  must  not  be  sup^wsed  that  IMgr.  Mercier 
was  able  to  pioneer,  even  to  the  sense  of  but 
giving  a  broader  expression  to  truths  embodied 
in  the  teachings  of  Aristotle  and  Saint  Thomas 
(Mediaeval  Scholasticism  had  its  roots  in  the 
ancient  schools  of  Greece) ,  without  opposition. 
We  can  more  easily  understand  the  militant 
prelate  of  the  past  few  years  if  we  know  of 
the  early  struggles  of  the  vigorous,  original 
young  teacher  to  put  his  convictions  into  prac- 
tice. There  were  those,  for  example,  who  de- 
manded that  he  continue  to  teach  in  Latin; 
though  he  knew  that  the  only  way  he  could 

84) 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


make  his  ideas  potent  was  by  clothing  them  in 
the  garment  of  modern  French.  Doctor  Pace, 
one  of  America's  foremost  Catholic  intel- 
lectuals, told  me  recently  of  the  delight  with 
which,  after  years  of  early  study  of  philosophy 
in  ponderous  Latin,  he  listened  to  the  crystal- 
line French  of  Cardinal  Mercier's  classroom. 
"  His  two  outstanding  qualities  as  a  teacher," 
he  added,  "  were  clarity  and  earnestness.  His 
whole  attitude  was  calculated  to  stir  enthusi- 
asm." 

Besides  those  who  objected  to  Latin,  were 
others  who  bitterly  opposed  the  entire  plan  of 
experimental  research;  and  still  others,  who, 
mocking  at  any  revival  of  Thomistic  philoso- 
phy, cried,  "  What  is  to  result  from  dragging 
up  the  remains  of  a  mediaeval  corpse?"  Yet 
the  number  of  his  followers  increased,  as  one 
after  another  was  attracted  or  disarmed  by  his 
intense  sincerity  and  convincing,  direct  method 
of  elucidating  his  theories.  But  despite  such 
evidences  of  growth  and  success,  or  perhaps 
because  of  them,  opposition  was  increasingly 

35 


Mercier 

bitter,  until  some  believed  ^Mgr.  ^Mercier  might 
be  forced  to  withdraw.  In  1896,  he  went  to 
Rome  for  counsel,  and  came  back  with  renewed 
courage  to  persevere. 

The  results  of  Leo  XIII's  decision  to  revive 
the  teaching  of  Thomistic  philosophy  have  been 
far-reaching.  Saint  Thomas  is  one  of  the  most 
precise  and  most  lucid  among  those  men  who 
throughout  the  ages  have  attempted  to  fathom 
the  mysteries  of  the  human  mind.  Henry 
Adams  said  of  him:  "  He  is  the  only  man  who 
could  make  a  sjTithesis."  Hundreds  of  stud- 
ents, inspired  by  the  new  teaching  of  his  \}\\\' 
losophy,  have  gone  from  Louvain  University 
to  important  chairs  in  the  schools  of  many 
countries. 

The  professor  was  not  satisfied  to  teach  and 
direct  in  person.  He  has  been  indefatigable 
in  promidgating  his  doctrines  in  writing.  His 
philosophical  treatises  have  run  through  sev- 
eral editions  in  five  or  six  modern  languages. 
Mcrcier's  Logic,  Ontology,  Psychology,  and 
General  Critcriolog}%  studied  in  this  order  as 

30 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


text-books,  in  his  philosophy  course  at  Lou- 
vain,  were  widely  translated.  And,  naturally, 
his  prominence  during  the  war  has  increased 
the  number  of  his  readers.  His  "  Origins  of 
Contemporary  Psychology  "  appeared  in  Eng- 
lish at  the  beginning  of  1918.  Two  large  vol- 
umes on  his  modern  scholastic  philosophy  were 
published  in  English  in  1917,  simultaneously 
in  London  and  St.  Louis.  Among  his  more 
intimate  works,  (published  by  the  Action 
Catliolique,  Brussels)  are  "To  my  Students," 
"  Pastoral  Works,  Acts,  Letters,"  in  five  vol- 
umes, appearing  from  1906  to  the  present, 
and  the  last  published,  beautiful  "Retreat 
Preached  to  Priests,"  bearing  the  sub- title 
"The  Inner  Life"  (1918) .  He  is  adding,  at 
present,  a  volume  covering  his  four  years'  cor- 
respondence with  the  German  occupying  gov- 
ernment, and  other  war  literature  to  the  al- 
ready long  list  of  his  writings. 

It  is  necessary  to  the  Cardinal  to  set  his 
thoughts  down  on  paper;  he  has  the  habit  of 
"Writing,  though,  especially  during  these  later 

37 


M 


crcier 


years,  he  has  sadly  lacked  the  quiet  he  would 
like  for  composition.  In  "  The  Inner  Life  "  m 
apologizing  to  his  priests  for  diffuseness,  he 
suggests  the  difficulty  of  combining  adminis- 
trative and  literary  work.  *'  There  are  in  tliis 
book,"  he  says,  "  repetitions  and  prolixity. 
The  excuse  is  in  our  working  conditions.  It  is 
indeed  possible  to  reserve  occasionally  a  few 
days  of  solitude  in  which  to  elaborate  a  plan, 
but  the  attempt  to  write  it  out  is  continually 
broken  into  by  the  daily  affairs  of  an  adminis- 
tration that  cannot  be  idle.  It  is  cut  by  inter- 
vals that  are  sometimes  prolonged,  during 
which  the  memory  of  things  already  said 
evaporates  and  concentration  of  thought  is 
relaxed." 

Cardinal  iNIercier  said  to  me  one  day  after  I 
had  looked  on  the  dust  and  ashes  of  what  had 
once  been  the  University  Library:  "That 
IJl)rary  was  the  child  of  my  heart."  He  might 
with  truth  have  said  this  of  the  university  as  a 
whole.  Who  questions  tlie  depth  of  his  affec- 
tion for  it  and  for  the  city  of  his  dearest  effort, 

38 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


needs  but  to  read  what  he  wrote  after  its  deso- 
lation. 

It  was  in  Rome,  where  he  was  assisting 
at  the  election  of  the  present  Pope  Benedict 
XV,  that  the  dread  tidings  reached  him.  "  In 
that  dear  city  of  Louvain,"  he  wrote  later  in 
a  pastoral  to  his  people,  "  from  which  it  is 
impossible  for  me  to  detach  my  memories,  one- 
third  of  the  built-up  section  is  destroyed;  the 
station  boulevard  is  no  more;  1074  homes  have 
disappeared;  in  the  city  and  its  suburbs  there 
is  a  total  of  1823  homes  burned.  The  superb 
collegiate  of  Saint  Pierre  will  never  recover  its 
old  splendor,  the  ancient  college  of  Saint  Yves, 
the  school  of  the  Beaux- Arts  of  the  city,  the 
commercial  and  consular  school  of  the  univer- 
sity, the  secular  halls,  our  rich  library  with 
its  collections,  its  incunabulae,  its  unedited 
manuscripts,  its  gallery  of  fame,  covering  the 
time  from  its  first  days,  the  portraits  of  rectors 
and  chancellors,  of  illustrious  professors,  be- 
fore whom  masters  and  pupils  of  to-daj''  were 
impregnated  with  noble  tradition  and  inspira- 

39 


Mercier 

tion  for  their  work;  all  this  accumulation  of 
treasure,  intellectual,  historic,  artistic,  the  fruit 
of  five  centuries  of  labor,  is  blotted  out !" 

To-da}"",  at  sixty-eight,  with  superb  courage, 
the  Cardinal  begins  the  task  of  reconstruction, 
though  he  wrote  poignantly  in  a  letter  I  re- 
cently received  regarding  his  approaching 
visit  to  America,  "A  few  weeks  passed  on  your 
soil  of  great  initiatives  and  powerful  achieve- 
ments, will  give  back  to  me,  I  hold  the  hope, 
a  little  of  the  vigor  of  my  o\\ti  youth  in  an  hour 
when  the  task  seems  very  hea\'y  to  ageing 
shoulders." 

It  is  true  that  the  professor  had  been  called 
away  from  the  university,  from  teaching,  to 
the  Primatial  See  at  Malines,  eight  years  be- 
fore the  war  began;  but  Louvain  remained  the 
city  of  his  heart.  In  February,  190G,  on  the 
death  of  Cardinal  Goosens  of  Malines,  Pope 
Pius  X  astonished  many  people,  even  in  Bel- 
gium, when  he  appointed  Mgr.  Mercier,  the 
pliilosophcr-professor,  to  succeed  to  this  im- 
portant administrative  post.    And  only  a  few 

40 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


months  later  the  Primate  became  a  Cardinal, 
with  the  title  of  Saint  Peter  in  Chains,  left 
vacant  by  the  death  of  the  French  Cardinal, 
Perraud.  It  was  not  easy  to  leave  the  city  he 
loved,  the  students  he  loved,  the  writings  he 
loved.  But  in  his  thought  he  belonged  to  God ; 
he  did  not  hesitate.  And  he  could  carry  much 
with  him  from  Louvain  to  Malines;  his  intel- 
lectual habits,  his  beautiful  confidence  in  the 
intelligence  of  others,  his  unshakable  belief  in 
the  importance  of  scientific  research,  continued 
to  be  determining  influences  in  the  new  work. 

From  the  day  the  Primate  entered  it,  the 
archbishop's  palace  at  Malines  has  been  the 
center  of  a  prodigious  activity.  And  from  the 
beginning  he  has  proved  himself  enlightened 
and  progressive  in  the  handling  of  the  manifold 
administrative  detail  of  his  large  diocese, 
which  includes  a  population  of  two  and  half 
million  Catholics  and  some  three  thousand 
priests.  He  has  traveled  unwearingly  from 
one  boundary  of  it  to  another,  directing  per- 
sonally his  clergy  and  peoj)le.    They  like  to 

41 


Mercier 

recall  an  incident  of  one  of  these  journeys  to 
Antwerp  a  few  years  ago.  As  the  Cardinal's 
automobile  was  hurrying  forward,  he  saw 
ahead  a  little  child  crossing  the  road,  and  fear- 
ing for  it,  shouted  to  the  chauffeur  to  swing 
the  car  toward  a  wall  alongside.  There  was  a 
swift  turn,  he  was  thrown  violently  to  the 
ground,  and  his  face  to-day  bears  the  scars 
of  his  injuries.  \^nienever  any  one  refers  to 
this  incident,  he  is  apt  to  say,  "  But  how  much 
better  it  was  that  this  should  have  happened 
than  that  the  slightest  injury  should  have  be- 
fallen the  little  child." 

And  while  zealously  directing  the  structural 
growth  of  his  See,  the  Cardinal  has  striven 
continually  to  develop  ever  higher  spiritual 
ideals  in  his  clergy  and  people,  as  the  only 
lasting  foundation  of  that  work.  We  have  but 
to  read  the  intimate  appeal  of  such  work  as  his 
recent  "  The  Inner  Life  "  to  appreciate  how 
ardently  he  longs  to  draw  all  toward  a  life 
consecrated  entirely  to  Christ. 

Cardinal  INIercier  is  one  of  those  great  men 
42 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


who  has  time  for  little  people  and  little  things. 
Certain  days  of  the  week  are  given  up  entirely 
to  visitors  of  all  classes,  who  begin  to  gather  in 
the  democratic  ante-chamber  as  early  as  eight 
o'clock  in  the  morning  to  wait  their  turn,  for, 
whatever  their  station,  they  are  received  in  the 
order  of  their  arrival.  These  visitors  are  not 
only  members  of  his  own  diocese  in  difficulty 
or  in  need  of  counsel  or  cheer,  but  include  men 
and  women  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  who 
carry  away  from  their  audiences  life  memories 
and  inspiration. 

While  primarily  occupied  with  the  adminis- 
trative and  spiritual  duties  of  his  sacred 
charge,  the  Primate,  believing,  as  he  does,  that 
the  whole  of  life's  activities  is  the  Church's 
concern,  has  given  much  consideration  to  the 
important  social  questions  of  the  day.  He  has 
been  especially  conspicuous  in  his  fight  against 
alcoholism  and  prostitution,  and  other  evils 
that  strike  at  the  hearth.  He  is  a  great  believer 
in  and  preacher  of  fraternity,  of  the  dignity  of 
the  poor  and  our  duty  to  see  that  they  secure 

43 


Mercier 

haj^piness.  He  is  keenly  interested  in  the  all- 
doniinating  struggle  to  secure  economic  justice 
for  the  working-man,  and  in  such  kindred  ef- 
forts as  those  to  provide  housing  for  the  unem- 
ployed, vacation  homes  for  working-women, 
orphanages  for  children.  And  naturally,  al- 
ways, all  education  is  of  most  vital  concern 
to  him ;  his  faith  hi  man's  present  and  future  is 
built  on  belief  in  its  potency. 

He  is  a  distinguished  statesman  as  well  as 
churchman.  He  has  been  indefatigable  in 
laboring  to  secure  a  more  closely  united  Bel- 
gium, and  in  his  championship  of  the  idea  of 
economic  development  as  vital  to  this  union 
and  to  her  existence.  For,  he  says,  it  is  through 
extended  activity  in  her  o\mi  Congo  regions, 
and  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  other  peoples 
in  other  countries,  that  she  will  become  con- 
scious of  the  importance  of  national  unity  and 
of  her  true  desire  for  it.  He  has  ])clicvcd,  with 
others,  that  Belgium  should  protect  herself  by 
a  strong  law  of  military  service  and  by  im- 
proved modem  fortresses  —  alas,  for  the  time 

44 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


lost  between  that  conviction  and  its  realization ! 
Without  question,  as  leader  of  the  conservative 
Catholic  party,  he  has  remained  the  most  strik- 
ing figure  in  the  Belgian  politics  of  the  past 
decade. 

Almost  immediately  after  his  appointment 
to  the  primacy,  he  was  made  president  of  the 
Belgian  Royal  Academy  of  Literature  and 
Sciences,  and  recently,  in  1918,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, he  was  further  honored  when  he 
was  elected  on  the  same  day  with  President 
Wilson,  to  the  French  Academy  of  Moral  and 
Political  Sciences. 

Mgr.  Baudrillart,  rector  of  the  Catholic 
University  at  Paris,  points  to  the  days  May 
9-11,  1909,  the  time  of  the  Louvain  Jubilee,  as 
probably  the  culminating  point  in  happiness 
in  the  Cardinal's  life.  Mgr.  Baudrillart  went, 
at  that  time,  from  Paris  to  Malines  to  repre- 
sent his  university  at  this  celebration  of  its 
sister  university  of  the  75th  anniversary  since 
its  restoration  by  the  Belgian  bishops.  All  the 
universities  of  the  world  had  been  invited  to 

45 


Mercier 

participate  and  the  French  Rector  vividly  de- 
scribes in  a  preface  to  liis  volume  "  Per  Crucem 
ad  Lucem  "  the  impression  the  brilliant  event 
made  upon  him.  There  he  saw  the  Cardinal, 
as  counsellor  to  the  King,  as  Primate  of  the 
Belgian  church,  and  as  greatest  power  in  the 
university,  uniting  in  himself,  in  a  central  knot 
of  union,  the  most  important  forces  of  the 
realm. 

"  I  see  him  still,"  he  says,  "  that  Sunday  of 
May  9th,  presiding  at  the  unveiling  of  the 
statue  of  Juste  Lispe.  He  was  standing  in 
the  middle  of  the  platform,  taller  than  all  those 
about  him,  dominating,  impressive  through  his 
extreme  thinness,  his  ascetic  physiognomy,  the 
fire  of  his  glance.  The  ministers  in  grand  uni- 
form, the  representatives  of  the  universities  in 
gala  costume,  the  city  authorities,  were  all 
grouped  a])out  him.  Like  a  general,  he  seemed 
to  be  passing  in  review  the  Catholic  forces  of 
the  realm. 

**  During  an  hour  and  a  half,  members  of  the 
ancient  societies   of  I^ouvain    (more  than   a 

40 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


thousand  had  come)  defiled  before  the  stand. 
Above  their  heads  floated  joyously  in  the  sun 
large  and  supple  banners  of  silk,  of  changeable 
colors,  embroidered  with  coats  of  arms  and 
symbolic  designs,  some  quite  new,  some  old  and 
venerable,  almost  all  beautiful.  The  flags 
were  inclined,  the  music  played,  hurrahs  were 
shouted  from  all  throats.  In  all  the  groups 
priests,  bourgeois,  workmen,  artists  and 
farmers  marched  together. 

"  The  following  day  at  the  church  of  Saint 
Pierre,  Cardinal  Mercier  appeared  again  sur- 
rounded by  the  apostolic  novices,  all  the 
Belgian  and  visiting  bishops,  followed  by 
ministers,  professors,  delegates,  academicians, 
magistrates,  functionaries  and  officers  of  the 
garrison.  And  for  the  men  of  the  church  who 
found  themselves  there,  it  was  an  intimate 
satisfaction  to  say  to  themselves  that  of  all  the 
corps  of  representative  savants,  there  was  not 
one  who  did  not  hold  himself  honored  to  count 
alongside  him  this  prince  of  the  church,  who 
was  also  a  prince  of  thought. 

47 


Mercier 

"  But  where  the  superiority  of  the  Cardinal 
most  shone  was  in  the  solenm  academic  meet- 
ing where  he  retraced  the  history  of  the  ser- 
vices of  the  university.  When  he  entered  the 
great  hall  of  the  College  of  the  Pope,  the 
youth  of  the  university  gave  him  an  enthusi- 
astic ovation.  During  three  hours  discourses 
followed  reports.  It  was  two  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  and  we  had  been  in  session  since 
nine.  Our  stomachs  were  objecting  a  little, 
when  it  was  at  last  the  Cardinal's  turn  to  ad- 
dress us.  With  the  first  words,  our  attention 
was  awakened  and  captivated.  He  talked  first 
eloquently  of  our  duty  to  the  state,  then  of  the 
needs  of  all  souls  in  all  countries  at  that  time. 

*'  *  There  is  behind  us,  according  to  Bossuet,' 
he  said,  *a  continually  renewed  multitude  of 
humanity,  hungry  to  believe,  to  sec,  to  com- 
prehend. Without  seeing  and  comprehending, 
in  one  word,  without  certitude,  it  is  impossible 
to  act  successfully.  From  the  \K)si  in  which 
God  placed  mc,  I  hear  the  incessant  cries  and 
groanings  of  this  nmltitudc  of  insaliablc  souls 

48 


From  Boy  to  Cardinal 


,who  are  in  quest  of  truth,  the  bread  of  life. 

"'Rehgion  and  moral  nourishment, —  but 
is  it  possible  for  Catholics  to  forget,  especially 
in  our  days,  that  they  demand  the  nourishment 
also  of  science?  Thoughtful  believers,  you 
have  the  noble  and  proud  duty  of  not  detaching 
yourselves  from  your  times,  but  of  sharing  its 
aspirations  and  solicitudes.  You  are  not  to  be 
of  those  called  emigrants  to  the  interior. 

"  *  Very  well,  it  is  the  University  that  will 
shape  you  and  make  you  capable  of  action,  for 
the  universities  are  the  lever  of  the  intellectual 
world.  But  if  she  is  to  maintain  her  high  place 
as  leader,  the  university  must  be  always  on 
the  march,  always  realizing  some  new  step  of 
progress.  A  university  is  a  living  work.  Its 
evolution  must  never  suffer  arrest.'  " 

The  Cardinal  then  outlined  this  progress  as 
he  saw  it,  and  the  future  of  his  dearly-loved 
Louvain,  the  most  ardent  intellectual  center 
of  the  Catholic  Church. 

It  was  in  May,  1909,  that  he  witnessed,  in 
this  dramatic  pageant,  the  symbol  of  the  suc- 

49 


Mercier 

cess  of  his  ambition.  Five  years  later  the  war 
seemed  to  have  turned  victory  into  defeat. 
But  while  at  sixty-eight  he  faces,  with  all  his 
duties  as  Primate,  those  of  the  task  of  recon- 
struction, he  must  see  in  the  midst  of  discour- 
agement much  that  is  hopeful.  Belgium, 
through  her  martyrdom,  has  won  a  place  in 
the  heart  of  the  world  that  she  never  held  be- 
fore; Protestants  and  Catliolic  alike  have 
already  poured  out  their  sympathy  and  their 
gifts  to  help  her  to  rise  from  the  ashes. 


CHAPTER  Til 

PASTORAIi  LETTERS  TO  AN  IMPRISONED   PEOPLE 

As  Archbishop,  Cardinal  Mercier,  following 
a  long-established  custom  of  the  Belgian 
bishops,  addressed  a  yearly  pastoral  letter  to 
his  people.  These  letters  touched  any  vital 
question,  social  or  political,  concerning  which 
he  felt  the  church  owed  a  duty  of  leadership. 
But  primarily,  they  were  messages  from  the 
spiritual  chief  to  his  flock,  intimate  and  aifec- 
tionate  in  their  greeting  and  encouragement, 
searching  in  their  condemnation,  compelling  in 
their  exhortation,  exalted  in  their  explanation 
of  Catholic  doctrine.  Indeed,  they  have  more 
than  once  been  likened  to  the  epistles  of  the 
early  apostles.  Those  epistles,  the  Cardinal 
had,  as  a  young  Seminarist,  translated  and 
annotated  and  committed  to  memory;  not,  a 
friend  of  his  has  said,  as  a  duty,  but  because 
he  loved  them. 

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A\Tien  the  Invader  set  a  wall  of  death  about 
Belgium,  cutting  off  her  millions  from  the 
world  outside,  in  swift  dramatic  recompense, 
despite  all  the  enemy's  power  and  vigilance, 
the  walls  of  the  diocese  of  ^Malines  fell,  and  her 
bishop  became  the  spiritual  sj)okesman  of  a 
shaken  world.  How  fortunate  for  those  who 
looked  to  him  that  the  man  who  possessed 
great  intellectual  and  spiritual  gifts,  possessed 
also  the  artist's  gift  of  expression!  His  pages 
are  vivid,  abounding  in  light,  i^recise  and  keen 
and  powerful,  and  welded  and  sustained  by 
passionate  feeling.  Those  who  fail  to  accept 
his  argument  are  often  captivated  by  the 
beauty  of  his  style. 

Several  of  the  pastorals  issued  during  the 
war  are  already  familiar  to  the  jieople  of  many 
countries.  "  Patriotism  and  Kndurancc," 
"  Per  Crucem  'ad  I^uccm,"  "  The  Voice  of 
God,"  "  Courage,  my  Brethren,"  "  Tlic  Lesson 
of  Kvcnts," —  all  of  these  have  become  a  part 
of  the  thought  of  the  worhl.  Interest  in  their 
setting  in  time  and  space  may  die;  in  the  cen- 

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Pastoral  Letters 


turies  to  come  their  exposition  of  doctrine  may 
find  few  listeners;  but  their  analyses  of  such 
ideals  as  those  of  justice,  of  honor,  and  of 
patriotism ;  of  the  principle  of  vicarious  suffer- 
ing, of  retribution,  and,  above  all,  of  the  duty 
and  rewarding  and  redeeming  power  of  char- 
ity, must  remain  for  us  of  universal  and  im- 
mortal significance, —  if  we  can  use  such  large 
terms  in  connection  with  our  small  and  fleet- 
ing world.  And  in  all  the  brilliant  series,  the 
first  Christmas  letter,  "  Patriotism  and  En- 
durance" in  the  opinion  of  many,  holds  fu*st 
place.  It  is  commonly  called  the  Christmas 
pastoral,  though  its  opening  pages  were  read  in 
the  churches  on  New  Year's  Day. 

Because  of  it,  on  that  first  New  Year's  Day 
after  the  initial  terror  and  agony  of  the  inva- 
sion, a  Brussels'  journalist  was  able  to  write 
and  conceal: 

"  The  good,  comforting  day!  Yes,  good,  in 
spite  of  the  mourning  that  envelopes  us;  for 
to-day  a  voice  is  heard  that  proclaims  clearly 
and  resolutely,  without  reticence  or  hesitation, 

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our  right  to  life  and  hope.  From  the  city,  half 
ill  ruins,  where  his  episcopal  palace  still  holds. 
His  Eminence,  the  Cardinal,  sends  to  the 
clergy  of  his  diocese,  with  the  request  that  it 
be  read  in  its  entirety  to  the  faithful  —  with- 
out omissions  or  cuts, —  whatever  the  power 
that  might  intervene  to  give  contrary  orders 
—  a  pastoral  letter  entitled,  *  Patriotism  and 
Endurance.* 

"  During  the  reading  of  this  document  in  the 
churches,  one  could  hear  the  flight  of  a  fly. 
And  when  the  priest  reached  the  avenging  con- 
clusion, the  emotion  was  tremendous. 

"Wliat  vigorous  language!  And  how  in 
reading  it,  one  feels  proud  to  be  a  Belgian! 

"  What  will  they  say,  our  invaders  of  the 
moment,  whom  this  indictment  must  burn  as  a 
red-hot  iron?  The  illustrious  Primate  of  Bel- 
gium awaits  them  without  fear.  INIillions  of 
bayonets  cannot  prevail  against  this  expres- 
sion of  his  thought.  It  is  a  moving  thing  to 
see  opening  this  duel  between  one  man  alone, 
armed  simply  witli  the  power  of  right,  and  one 

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of  the  most  formidable  empires  of  the  world. 
The  act  accomplished  by  Mgr.  INIercier  was  the 
result  of  ripe  reflection.  The  letter  is  printed 
and  was  sold  secretly  in  book-shops  at  the  hour 
when  it  was  being  read  in  the  churches.  .  .  , 
Will  they  punish?" 

It  is  evident  that  the  Cardinal  had  not  writ- 
ten an  academic  treatise  on  the  virtues  of 
patriotism  and  endurance. 

After  affectionate  greetings  and  a  swift  al- 
lusion to  the  common  sorrow,  his  first  thought 
is  of  those  "  Outside  "  on  the  battle-line,  who 
have  given,  and  are  giving,  their  lives  for 
others.  King  Albert,  he  sees  at  the  summit  of 
the  moral  scale.  In  a  voice  surcharged  with 
grief,  he  pictures  the  desecration  and  desola- 
tion of  Belgium,  the  explanation  of  which  re- 
mains the  secret  of  God.  But  as  God  punishes 
man,  who  has  forgotten  him,  so  surely  will  he 
heal  and  save  him.  With  rapid  strokes,  he 
develops  the  idea  of  patriotism  as  the  highest 
of  Christian  virtues,  which  in  its  conception 
implicitly  affirms  God.    "  Far  do^\Ti  within  us 

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Mercier 

all,"  he  says,  "is  sometliing  deeper  than  per- 
sonal interests,  than  personal  kinships,  than 
party  feeling,  and  this  is  the  need  to  devote 
ourselves  to  that  more  general  interest  ^vhichi 
Rome  termed  the  public  thing.  Res  puhlica. 
And  this  profound  will  within  us  is  patriotism. 
.  .  .  It  is  an  internal  principle  of  order  and 
amity,  an  organic  bond  of  the  members  of  a 
nation.  The  religion  of  Christ  makes  it  a  posi- 
tive law.  There  is  no  perfect  Christian  who  is 
not  also  a  perfect  patriot.  Which  of  us  docs 
not  feel  that  patriotism  is  a  sacred  thing,  and 
that  a  violation  of  national  dignity  is  in  a  man- 
ner a  profanation  and  a  sacrilege? " 

From  the  consideration  of  patriotism,  the 
pastor  turns  to  the  thought  of  endurance. 
"Affliction  is,  in  the  hand  of  Divine  Omnip- 
otence, a  two-edged  sword.  It  wounds  the 
rebellious;  it  sanctifies  liim  who  is  wilhng  to 
endure."  But  he  adds,  "  I  do  not  require  of 
you  to  renounce  any  of  your  national  desires. 
The  authority  of  the  occupying  power  is  no 
lawful  authority.    Therefore,  in  soul  and  con- 

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science  you  owe  it  neither  respect,  nor  attach- 
ment, nor  obedience." 

But  "  let  us  conduct  ourselves  with  all  need- 
ful forbearance.  Let  us  not  mistake  bravado 
for  bravery,  nor  tumult  for  courage."  To  his 
priests,  he  says  especially,  "  I  exhort  you  to 
persevere  in  this  ministry  of  peace,  which  is 
for  you  the  sanest  form  of  patriotism;  to  ac- 
cept with  all  your  hearts  the  privations  you 
have  to  endure ;  to  simplify  still  further  if  it  is 
possible,  your  way  of  life."  And  to  all  he 
speaks  a  final  word  of  appeal  for  greater 
charity  and  holy  living.  The  whole  epistle  is 
so  closely  welded  and  balanced  that  one  hesi- 
tates to  select  or  emphasize  its  parts.  In  its 
entirety  it  stands  as  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
and  irrefutable  arraignments  of  wrong,  and 
one  of  the  most  elevated  appeals  to  duty,  exist- 
ing in  any  language. 

The  pastoral  letters  were  printed  and  dis- 
tributed to  the  clergy  with  instructions  as  to 
when  and  how  they  should  be  read  to  the  con- 
gregations.    Along  with   them   through   the 

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Mercier 

years,  both  before  and  during  the  war,  there 
was  printed  also  a  succession  of  other  writings, 
addressed  either  directly  to  priests,  (such  as  the 
letters  preaching  a  Retreat)  or  allocutions, 
announcements  and  the  like. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  when  the  Ger- 
mans arrived,  printing,  excei)t  by  them,  or 
under  their  super^^ision,  ceased.  No  news- 
papers were  permitted  other  than  those  they 
owned  or  subsidized;  and  7,000,000  Belgians 
and  2,500,000  French  were  thus  at  once  cut 
off  from  communication  within  their  territory, 
and  with  the  outside  world,  except  by  under- 
ground ways.  A  certain  Dutch  newspaper, 
the  Rottcrdamische  Courant,  was,  it  is  true, 
allowed  to  come  in  past  the  electric  barrier 
from  Holland,  but  only  because  its  sympathies 
were  apparently  with  the  Central  Powers.  On 
any  day  when  it  carried  news  supposed  to  be 
cheering  to  the  Allies,  the  issue  was  barred, 
which  was,  of  course,  stupid  and  futile,  since 
the  people,  left  to  tlicir  imaginings,  were  usu- 
ally much  more  encouraged  by  the  suppression 

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Pastoral  Letters 


than  the  truth  warranted.  Besides,  they 
quickly  found  subterranean  ways  of  discover- 
ing why  a  particular  edition  had  been  kept  out. 
One  day,  when  I  was  lunching  near  Charleroi, 
I  remarked  to  my  host  as  we  were  going 
toward  the  table,  "  You  should  sit  down  cheer- 
fully this  noon,  for  the  Rotterdamische  has  not 
appeared."  "Would  you  care  to  see  why?" 
he  questioned  quietly,  as  he  drew  a  sheet  of 
onion-skin  paper,  closely  covered  with  bright 
blue  ink  paragraphs,  from  his  inner  coat- 
pocket. 

We  can  better  appreciate  what  any  printed 
message  from  the  Cardinal  meant  to  the  people 
if  we  keep  always  in  mind  this  determination 
of  the  Invader  to  isolate  his  captives.  Of 
course,  the  reaction  to  the  isolation  policy  was 
swift.  Throughout  the  entire  war,  nothing  so 
delighted  and  braced  the  people  as  the  appear- 
ance, from  time  to  time,  of  the  now  world- 
famous  tiny  newspaper,  the  clandestine,  "La 
Lihre  Belgique" — "Free  Belgium."  And 
nothing  more  infuriated  the  Germans  than  the 

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persistent  victory  of  tliis  secret  press.  The 
continued  defeat  of  his  attempt  to  unearth  it,  so 
worried  Governor-General  von  Bissing  that  it 
probably  helped  to  kill  him ;  for  despite  the  fact 
that  he  had  an  entire  secret  service  commission 
constantly  on  its  track,  number  after  number 
of  Free  Belgium  appeared  mysteriously  on 
his  desk,  and  he  died  without  knowing  where 
it  came  from.  The  explanation  most  fre- 
quently offered,  while  I  was  "  Inside  "  was  that 
the  Jesuits  were  at  the  bottom  of  it.  It  was 
strongly  Catholic  in  color,  and  this  seemed  a 
picturesque  possibility. 

Frequently  individuals  were  caught  reading 
or  trying  to  pass  it  on,  and  for  them  the 
punishment  was  ruthless.  As  members  of  the 
neutral  Relief  Commission,  we  had  to  be  care- 
ful to  have  no  connection  with  it,  but  we  could 
not  help,  from  time  to  time,  seeing  an  issue. 
The  day  before  I  was  to  go  "  Out,"  at  the  end 
of  1910,  I^aure,  my  faithful  Belgian  maid  and 
friend,  brought  up  from  the  letter  box  at  the 
door  a  handful  of  farewell  notes  and  cards, 

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Pastoral  Letters 


and  with  them  a  packet,  which,  as  she  passed 
it  to  me,  loosened,  revealing  several  copies  of 
Free  Belgimn.  Laure's  face  turned  sud- 
denly white.  I  thought  she  would  fall,  until 
I  said  quickly,  "  Pull  yourself  together;  get  a 
match  I  You  and  I  alone  have  seen  these ;  we'll 
bum  them  at  once  here  in  the  fire-place — no 
one  can  possibly  know."  And  while  she  ran 
for  a  match,  I  glanced  hurriedly  down  the  for- 
bidden columns.  There  I  found  a  heart- 
breaking appeal  to  the  workmen  of  the  world 
to  rise  up  against  the  deportation  of  Belgian 
workmen.  Poor  people !  Some  one  had  hoped 
that  I  might,  despite  my  agreements,  attempt 
to  carry  this  message  across  the  death  barrier. 
But  even  had  my  conscience  consented,  I 
should  have  tried  in  vain,  for  neutral  though 
I  was,  I  was  searched  to  the  sldn  at  the 
frontier. 

Ever-heartening  mystery  and  concrete  and 
visible  expression  of  an  unconquerable  faith 
and  hope,  was  "  Free  Belgium."  Its  history  is 
so  suggestive  of  the  atmosphere  in  which  the 

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Cardinal's  letters  appeared,  and  of  the  diffi- 
culties of  their  distribution,  that  I  quote  a  few 
paragraphs  from  a  fascinating  little  pamphlet, 
which,  shortly  after  the  armistice,  thrilled  Bel- 
gium with  its  revelation  of  the  secret  of  four 
years.  The  author,  ]M.  Delandsheere,  reports 
the  story  as  it  was  told  for  the  first  time  by  its 
hero,  ]M.  Eugene  Van  Doren,  who  disappeared 
two  and  a  half  years  before  the  close  of  the  war. 
He  had  escaped  to  Holland,  it  was  believed, 
but  with  the  armistice,  Brussels  found  that  he 
had  never  left  that  city,  though  during  the 
two  and  one-half  years  he  had  not  once  seen 
his  wife  and  five  children  who  lived  there. 

"As  I  sat  doun  in  the  midst  of  the  reunited 
family,"  the  writer  says,  *'  Van  Doren  brought 
to  the  table  a  heavy  cement  ])rick,  whicK 
throughout  the  war  had  lain  abandoned  in  a 
corner  of  the  garden.  He  cut  it  in  two  and 
took  carefully  from  the  inner  cavity  a  coffer 
holding  a  slicaf  of  papers,  admirably  pre- 
served, and  with  the  writing  on  the  outside 
perfectly  legible,  *  Destined  for  my  wife  and 

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children  if  I  am  shot.'  With  this  before  us, 
he  began: 

"  *  It  was  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  war, 
that,  thanks  to  German  money,  a  new  journal, 
the  Bruxellois,  apj)eared,  and  that  M.  Victor 
Jourdain,  chief  editor  of  the  Patriote,  called 
my  attention  to  the  perfidy  of  its  publication, 
adding,  "We  cannot  tolerate  that  this  sheet 
shall  poison  the  public  mind.  Will  you  under- 
take to  warn  our  people?"  I  agreed,  and  he 
gave  me  the  material,  my  first  copy.  I  went 
directly  to  one  of  my  friends,  the  Abbe  De- 
moor,  vicaire  of  the  church  of  St.  Albert,  and 
there  securely  hidden,  and  with  the  aid  only  of 
a  very  primitive  multiplying  machine,  I 
printed  a  certain  number  of  sheets.  These 
we  succeeded  in  distributing,  through  the 
scouts.  A  few  days  later  we  had  the  satisfac- 
tion to  hear  the  Germans  forbidding  all  repro- 
duction of  writing  by  any  mechanical  process 
whatsoever. 

"  '  The  new  year  arrived,  and  the  clergy  read 


in  all  their  churches  the  magnificent  letter  of 

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Mercier 

His  Eminence,  the  Cardinal,  entitled,  "  Patri- 
otism and  Endurance."  It  was  decided  with 
M.  Jourdain  that  we  would  edit  this  letter  and 
sell  it  to  the  public  at  the  actual  cost  of  print- 
ing. We  made  25,000  copies,  rejoicing  in 
advance  over  the  fury  that  would  seize  von 
Bissing.  The  letter  was  printed  by  M.  Bee- 
quart,  of  Louvain  Street.  The  Abbe  Demoor 
and  I  divided  the  25,000  copies  between  us  and 
set  about  distributing  them.  But  we  had  dis- 
posed of  not  more  than  300  when  I  found  him 
one  evening  in  a  state  of  consternation.  The 
Germans  had  descended  on  the  printing  room^ 
seized  all  the  copies,  and  Becquart  had  escaped 
by  a  hair's  breadth.  It  was  a  bad  beginning. 
But  we  refused  to  be  discouraged  and  began 
the  search  for  another  printer;  INI.  IMassardo, 
of  the  bookshop  in  the  Saint-IIubert  Passage, 
served  us  this  time,  furnishing  a  second  25,000 
copies,  only  a  part  of  which,  however,  were 
distributed. 

" '  This    propaganda    created    a    sensation. 
One  beautiful  day,  when  I  was  alone  with  M. 

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Jourdain,  he  asked  me  if  I  Avould  dare  to  risk 
undertaking  a  clandestine  paper,  and  sug- 
gested the  title,  "  Free  Belgium."  I  went 
home  and  at  once  began  to  work.  .  .  .  Since 
I  was  exposed  to  constant  danger,  I  judged 
it  prudent  to  take  certain  precautions.  I  se- 
cured a  cane,  one  end  of  which  I  carefully  hol- 
lowed, so  that  I  could  insert  my  machine  copy 
on  silk  paper;  for  I  took  care  to  type  each 
manuscript  sent  to  me.  With  this  device,  I 
had  the  chance,  in  case  of  arrest,  of  giving 
nothing  into  the  hands  of  the  Germans.  In 
the  evening,  after  having  made  my  packets  of 
papers,  I  lowered  them,  with  the  aid  of  my 
wife,  do\vn  the  chimney,  and  by  means  of  a  cer- 
tain system,  let  the  supporting  rope  hang  so 
that  a  policeman's  hand  could  not  reach  it,  in 
case  of  search.  But  one  day  after  I  heard  the 
governess  of  our  children  discussing  certain 
strange  noises  she  had  heard  in  the  chimney, 
I  resolved  to  avoid  it.'" 

From  this  point,  the  story  advances  by  a 
series  of  miraculous  escapes,  tragically  shad- 

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Mercier 

owed  by  the  capture  of  certain  aids,  the  fore- 
most among  them  being  Philip  Baucq,  who 
was  shot  on  the  same  morning  with  Edith 
Cavell.  I  stood  last  November,  in  front  of 
the  flower-smothered  graves  in  which  they  lay, 
side  by  side.  But  when  one  fell  or  disap- 
peared, another  carried  on.  One  editor  dic- 
tated an  issue  from  his  prison  cell.  The  de- 
feated Germans  carried  many  things  away 
with  them  when  they  marched  out  of  Brussels 
on  Xovcmber  17,  but  they  left  the  secret  of 
"  La  Libre  Belgique  "  behind. 

Such  was  the  net  of  repression  and  peril 
which  failed  to  daunt  the  Cardinal. 

At  Christmas-time,  1914,  "  Patriotism  and 
Endurance"  was  sent  to  the  clergy  with  in- 
structions that  it  be  read  in  all  the  churches 
the  following  Sunday.  It  had  been  printed  by 
]M.  Francis  Dessain,  a  distinguished  Belgian 
scholar  and  graduate  of  Oxford  ITniversity, 
whose  brother  was  Burgomaster  of  INIalincs. 
The  Dessains  came  from  a  long  line  of 
printers.     I  happened  once  to  be  in  INIalincs 

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Pastoral  Letters 


when  the  yearly  mass  was  being  celebrated  in 
one  of  the  churches  for  the  Dessain  printers, 
gone  to  their  reward,  great-grandfather, 
grandfather,  father.  The  sons,  before  the  war, 
had  been  printers  to  the  Archbishop,  so  that 
it  was  quite  natural  that  they  should  print  the 
first  war  pastoral. 

In  1916,  I  saw  for  the  first  time  at  one  end 
of  the  charming  inner  court  of  the  Burgo- 
master's house,  the  low  brick  building  that 
harbored  the  historic  press.  A  shattered 
fa9ade  opposite  it  recalled  those  opening  days 
of  catastrophe  when  the  Cardinal  was  still  at 
Rome,  and  the  enemy  shells  were  falling  on  his 
church  and  palace.  At  the  time  of  my  visit, 
the  Burgomaster  was  a  prisoner  in  Germany 
(not  for  printing  the  first,  but  a  later,  letter 
of  His  Eminence)  and  IM.  Francis  Dessain 
and  his  sweet-faced  sisters  showed  me  through. 
On  my  way  in,  I  had  passed  the  gray-helmeted 
sentry  still  watching  the  house  from  the  street, 
but  there  were  no  longer  others  in  the  court- 
yard.   Inside  the  printing  rooms  was  disarray ; 

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Mercier 

heaps  of  boxes  on  the  floor,  piles  of  papers  on 
the  table,  bits  of  red  sealing-wax  still  hanging 
from  the  key-holes, —  all  as  the  Germans  had 
left  it  in  January,  1914. 

From  the  printing-rooms  we  recrossed  the 
court,  bright  with  California  poppies  and 
snapdragons,  to  the  library  of  the  house,  where 
at  two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  January  2, 
1914,  Francis  Dessain  was  arrested  for  print- 
ing the  Christinas  letter.  In  the  room  where  it 
was  staged,  I  had  from  his  oa\ti  lips  the  drama 
of  that  night. 

At  ten  minutes  past  two  o'clock  on  the  morn- 
ing after  New  Year's,  lie  was  awakened  by  a 
loud  knock  on  tlie  street  door,  and  hastily 
putting  on  a  dressing-goun  and  a  pair  of 
thin  slippers,  he  hurried  do\\'n  stairs.  As  he 
opened  the  door  a  burly  German  in  civilian's 
clothes  slioutcd,  "  If  you  don't  tell  the  truth 
you  will  be  shot!  You  i)rintcd  the  Cardinal's 
letter." 

**  But  yes,"  ]M.  Dessain  answered,  "  I  am 
printer  to  the  Archbislioi),  naturally,  and,  of 

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Pastoral  Letters 


course,  I  printed  the  letter.  Will  you  come  in  ?  " 
The  detective  turned  and  whistled  down  the 
street  and  in  answer  four  Germans  appeared 
quickly  and  all  followed  M.  Dessain,  still  in  his 
dressing-gown  and  shivering  with  cold,  into  the 
library. 

As  we  sat  there  two  years  later,  he  pointed 
out  the  place  his  inquisitors  took  that  January 
morning.  "  One  sat  there,"  he  said;  "  the  offi- 
cer from  Malines,  with  whom  I,  as  head  of 
the  relief  committee,  had  had  considerable  con- 
tact, there;  the  detective,  over  there  by  the 
window;  and  the  most  formidable  member  of 
the  quintette,  no  other  than  the  political  chief 
of  the  governing  forces,  the  Baron  von  der 
Lancken,  who  had  come  from  Brussels  for  this 
night's  work,  there;  while  my  chief  interroga- 
tor, the  Major,  kept  to  the  edge  of  the  table 
or  moved  restlessly  about. 

"His  first  words  were  hardly  reassuring: 
*  This  is  most  serious ;  it  is  in  fact,  high  treason. 
Why  did  you  print  something  you  had  not  first 
submitted  to  the  censor? '  " 

69 


Mercier 

M.  Dessain  could  answer  honcsth''  that  he 
had  had  no  knowledge  of  any  censorship  ruling 
to  cover  the  pastoral  letters  of  His  Eminence. 
The  ]Major  demanded  a  copj'^  of  the  letter. 
There  was  one  on  the  table,  which  he  seized 
eagerly. 

"  *  \^^ly  did  you  not  yourself  examine  the 
letter  before  i^rinting  it?'  " 

"  You  are  an  officer ;  would  you  allow  your 
men  to  question  your  orders? " 

*' '  Do  the  printing  M'orks  belong  to  the 
Cardinal?'" 

"  In  the  sense  that  we  are  under  contract 
to  print  for  him." 

At  this  point,  the  detective  broke  in  angrily 
with  a  demand  for  the  original  and  was  more 
angry  when  told  it  had  not  been  kept. 

The  Major  then  began  reading  the  letter 
aloud,  sentence  by  sentence,  underlining  as  he 
read.  He  interrupted  the  reading  to  ask  if  the 
priests  had  already  received  it. 

"  Over  two  thousand  cox)ies,"  ]M.  Dessain 
replied  very  coolly,  "have  been  distributed, 

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Pastoral  Letters 


and  were  read  in  the  churches  yesterday 
morning." 

Wlien  he  reached  the  passage  enumerating 
the  desolated  villages,  the  Major  cried:  "Is 
that  calculated  to  calm  the  people?"  "Read 
on,"  said  the  Belgian,  "  and  you  will  see  that 
His  Emience  preaches  submission  under  trial." 
He  was  getting  rather  nervous  and  worn  with 
the  strain,  and  was  exercising  all  his  ingenuity 
to  hold  the  discussion  to  the  latter  part  of  the 
text.  But  when  they  reached  the  sentence, 
"  You  owe  to  the  enemy  neither  esteem  nor 
confidence,"  the  Major  lost  his  temper.  *'  Go 
on,"  persisted  the  printer, — "  We  owe  external 
obedience  so  long  as  it  is  not  against  our 
conscience." 

The  library  was  gloomy,  and  at  this  point 
M.  Dessain,  seeking  any  possible  opportunity 
to  break  the  tension,  stepped  to  an  electric 
button  to  turn  on  more  light.  But  by  inad- 
vertence he  extinguished  what  there  was,  and 
in  an  instant  the  detective  was  upon  him.  His 
companions  could  not  help  looking  a  little  an- 

71 


Mercier 

noyed  when,  the  proper  button  bemg  x^ushed, 
they  realized  how  stupid  this  suspicion  was. 

"  You  do  not  understand  the  Belgians,"  M. 
Dessain  continued.  "  I  assure  you  this  mes- 
sage will  cahn  them ;  it  will  revive  courage,  but 
not  incite  revolt.  Are  you  going  to  stop  its 
publication?" 

"  '  iMost  certainly.'  " 

The  reading  finished  and  practically  the 
entire  text  underlined,  cold  and  weary  though 
he  was,  M.  Dessain  was  next  obliged  to  lead 
across  the  court  to  the  printing  rooms. 
"  There,"  he  said,  '*  despite  the  seriousness  of 
the  moment,  I  could  scarcely  refrain  from 
laughing  aloud  at  the  detective's  pompous  pre- 
tences to  knowledge  of  the  press  and  its 
processes. 

"  From  the  rooms,  we  went  ])ack  to  the 
house,  where  I  was  permitted  to  dress,  in  the 
presence  of  the  detective,  however,  who  marched 
up  and  down  in  my  room,  smoking  a  cigar. 

"  Throughout  the  entire  ordeal,  I  had  one 
supreme  desire;  that  my  sisters  should  not 

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Pastoral  Letters 


know  what  had  haj)pened  until  all  was  over, 
I  could  see  only  fruitless  anxiety  for  them  if 
they  were  awakened.  But  they  were  not  to  be 
spared.  The  tramping  of  the  detective 
alarmed  them,  and  they  came  to  me,  calm  on 
the  outside,  but  I  knew  with  what  inner  fore- 
bodings. I  did  what  I  could  to  reassure  them 
before  I  had  to  follow  the  German  downstairs. 
"  There  I  was  asked  at  what  time  the  Car- 
dinal got  uj),  and  replied  that  he  would  say 
mass  at  seven.  Sentries  were  placed  in  the 
garden  and  in  front  of  the  house,  and  my 
sisters  were  ordered  not  to  leave  it  or  to  look 
from  the  windows.  It  was  just  half-past  four 
when  the  detective  led  the  way  into  the  street. 
There  he  whistled  again,  and  this  time  between 
one  hundred  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  Ger- 
man soldiers  turned  the  corner.  My  guard  of 
five  could  hardly  have  failed  to  catch  the  look 
of  amusement  I  could  not  restrain.  A  body- 
guard of  five  and  an  escort  of  over  a  hundred 
soldiers,  all  for  one  man  —  this  seemed  rather 
overdoing  it ! 

73 


Mercier 

"Arrived  at  the  Grand  Place,  I  was  con- 
ducted to  a  room  of  the  Ivreischef,  about  nine 
by  six,  furnished  with  a  chair,  a  table  and  a 
gas-stove,  and  left  alone.  At  six-thirtj^  when 
the  watch,  witli  fifes  and  drums  marched  past, 
I  had  no  doubt  that  they  had  come  to  lead  me 
to  my  execution. 

"And  all  the  while  I  was  anxiously  wonder- 
ing what  the  Germans  would  dare  attempt 
with  His  Eminence.  Would  they  take  him  to 
Brussels?  Fortunately,  I  had  my  missal  with 
me,  and  could  read  it  constantly  during  the 
four  days  of  uncertainty  M'hich  followed.  I 
was  taken  out  for  trial  at  eleven  o'clock  INIon- 
day  morning,  and  by  five  o'clock  that  evening 
was  told  that  I  was  released  on  parole  until 
a  decision  could  be  reached.  On  the  day  fol- 
lowing my  arrest  (Saturday),  soldiers  had 
re-entered  the  printing  rooms  and  seized 
X^resses  and  papers,  ])ut  had  found  nothing  in- 
criminating, so  after  all  tlicir  stupid,  and  I 
must  admit,  nerve-racking  performance,  I  was 
sentenced  to  .500  marks  or  fifty  daj'^s  in  prison. 

74 


Pastoral  Letters 


On  receipt  of  the  third  notice,  I  paid  the  fine." 
This  was  the  experience  of  the  printer  of  the 
Christmas  letter  as  he  told  it  to  me  in  Malines, 
in  1916.  His  brother,  the  Burgomaster,  was 
still  at  that  time  a  prisoner  in  Germany. 

But  what  of  the  Primate  of  Belgium  during 
those  days? 

At  six  o'clock  of  the  same  morning  following 
New  Year's,  he  was  preparing  to  say  mass 
when  a  motor  carrying  German  soldiers 
stopped  before  his  house.  Two  sentinels  were 
placed  at  the  door,  while  an  officer  announced 
that  he  must  see  His  Eminence  at  once.  The 
Cardinal  sent  word  that  he  could  receive  no  one 
until  mass  was  over,  but  the  German  insisted, 
and  was  finally  admitted  to  the  study,  where  he 
delivered  a  letter  from  Governor-General  von 
Bissing,  who  demanded,  he  said,  an  immediate 
reply.  The  Cardinal  repeated  that  until  he 
had  said  mass,  he  could  do  nothing,  and  that 
in  any  case  it  would  require  some  time  to  read 
the  letter  carefully  and  compose  the  reply. 
But  the  officer  remained  seated  in  front  of  the 

75 


Mercier 

study  desk,  announcing  that  he  would  stay  un- 
til the  answer  was  in  his  hands.  In  the  end, 
however,  he  withdrew  to  the  waiting  room  be- 
low, Mhile  the  Cardinal  went  to  the  church  to 
perform  the  morning  mass. 

^^^lcn  it  was  over,  he  again  suggested  that 
the  German  return  to  Brussels,  but  seeing  in- 
sistence was  useless,  he  sat  do^Mi  and  began 
to  write.  At  six  o'clock  that  evening  he  de- 
livered some  thirty-tMO  pages,  in  wliich  he  not 
only  refuted  the  charges  von  Bissing  had  made 
but  refused  to  retract  a  single  one  of  his  o^vn 
statements  in  the  Christmas  pastoral,  and  par- 
ticularly that  one  on  which  the  enemy's  anger 
was  focusscd,  "  INIy  dear  brethren,  in  your  in- 
timate conscience,  you  owe  to  the  invading 
power  neither  esteem  nor  affection  nor  obedi- 
ence." In  the  Cardinal's  own  story  of  this 
early  morning  interview,  as  he  told  it  to  us 
during  his  recent  visit,  he  said  that  Mhen  the 
Governor-General's  emissary  demanded  that 
he  retract  these  words,  he  replied:  "  I  do  not 
express  any  personal  opinion.     I  express  the 

7G 


Pastoral  Letters 


Christian  doctrine  of  right.  According  to 
Christian  principles,  there  is  in  one  country 
but  one  legitimate  authority;  that  country  al- 
though it  be  reduced  to  only  a  small  part  of  our 
territory,  a  few  kilometers  along  the  shore  of 
the  sea,  still  remains  with  our  King  and  Gov- 
ernment only,  and  only  there  do  we  owe  obedi- 
ence." 

"You  must  give  an  account  of  that 
phrase,"  the  officer  said.  *'  My  account  is  very 
simple.  I  had  a  duty  to  fulfill ;  I  fulfilled  my 
duty  and  that  is  all  I  have  to  say."  "  Then," 
he  added,  "you  will  appear  before  the  Gov- 
ernor-General." 

This  was  on  Saturday  morning  and  I  an- 
swered, "At  what  time?"  ""V\nien  we  return 
to  Brussels  we  will  let  you  loiow  by  telephone 
when  the  Governor  expects  you."  I  said, 
"  Very  good :  on  one  condition,  that  he  invites 
me  to-day  or  next  jMonday,  because  to-morrow, 
Sunday,  I  have  a  religious  function  to  perform 
in  Antwerp."  He  answered  in  a  strong  voice: 
"  Oh,   but   you   are   at   our   disposal   at   any 

77 


Mcrcier 

moment."  I  said,  "  No,  to-morrow  is  Smiday; 
I  cannot  come,  and  will  not  come."  And  then 
I  noticed  inmiediately  that  I  had  reasoned  cor- 
rectly; that  is,  that  a  display  of  wealoiess 
incites  violence  from  the  German,  but  moral 
resistance  creates  respect  and  fear. 

"  They  went  away,  and  during  that  day  all 
the  German  motor  cars  in  Belgium  rode  to  all 
the  parishes  in  u\y  diocese  to  seize  the  letters, 
to  threaten  the  priests  with  fines  and  with  more 
severe  pains  if  they  dared  read  my  pastoral. 

"  Since  you  fail  to  retract,"  the  officer  had 
said  on  going,  "  you  will  not  be  at  liberty  to 
leave  your  palace." 

Two  days  later.  His  Eminence  received  a 
telegram  from  the  United  States  (which  the 
Germans  felt  compelled  to  deliver),  asking  if 
it  were  true  that  he  was  a  prisoner.  He  wrote 
a  direct  reply  but  was  forced  to  modifj"^  it,  and 
to  say  little  more  than  that  virtually  he  was 
a  prisoner,  and  that  he  would  send  details  later. 

Nothing  came  of  the  threat  that  His  Emi- 
nence M'ould  have  to  answer  the  Governor- 

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Pastoral  Letters 


General  in  Brussels,  but  on  Sunday,  he  was 
not  permitted  to  go  to  Antwerp  to  fulfill  his 
engagements  there. 

Of  course,  each  one  of  these  petty  indigni- 
ties visited  on  the  Primate  of  Belgium  helped 
to  fan  the  flame  of  resistance  to  the  occupying 
power.  People  thronged  the  churches,  even 
those  who  had  not  been  inside  them  for  years. 
One  vied  with  another  in  his  zeal  to  spread  far 
and  wide  the  forbidden  message.  And  by  some 
mysterious  underground  path,  it  made  its  way 
to  the  world  outside.  The  word  of  truth  was 
a  living  word ;  the  enemy  hand  could  not  cover 
it. 

It  is  only  since  the  close  of  the  war  that  our 
intense  and  long-baffled  curiosity  about  the 
amazing  victory  of  the  underground  way  out 
from  the  death-encircled  territory,  has  been 
satisfied.  The  escape  of  the  Patriotism  and 
Endurance  letter  furnished  the  first  *'  secret 
passage  "  sensation ;  and  we  have  only  a  short 
time  ago  heard  revealed  by  the  author  himself, 
the  mystery  of  that  success. 

79 


Mepcier 

"  I  had,  of  course,  foreseen  that  this  letter 
would  displease  our  occupying  friends,  and  I 
thought  I  had  better  send  it  out  of  the  coun- 
try, before  it  should  be  published  in  Belgium, 
and  so  I  did. 

"  Six  days  before  the  printing  of  my  letter, 
I  sent  it  abroad  to  Holland.  I  had  in  Holland 
a  very  good  j)riest,  who  was  my  representative 
among  our  refugees  there.  I  sent  my  letter 
first  by  a  courageous  young  man  who  tried  to 
get  into  Holland.  I  never  learned  whether  he 
did  pass.  A  second  way  of  sending  my  letter 
was  by  a  little  boat  which  was  going  down  the 
Scheldt  to  Holland,  but  I  had  a  third  one,  most 
sure  of  all,  and  it  succeeded. 

"At  the  frontier  between  Holland  and  Bel- 
gium we  have  a  seminary  where  there  are  seven 
or  eight  hundred  students,  and  for  their  living 
they  receive  usually  a  great  quantity  of  Dutch 
cheese  in  boxes.  The  Germans  liked  the  cheese 
1111(1  let  it  pass  into  our  country.  Well,  I 
thought  I  could  send  my  letter  very  surely  this 
way:   When  the  cheeses  came  to  Belgium  to 

80 


Pastoral  Letters 


the  seminary,  the  papers  in  which  they  were 
wrapped  were,  of  course,  crumpled  and  dirty. 
I  made  my  letter  old  and  soiled,  and  it  was 
sent  back  with  all  those  filthy  papers  in  the 
boxes  to  Holland. 

"  So  my  friend  received  it,  and  I  think  he 
told  me  afterwards,  not  with  disgust,  but  with 
respect.  He  took  the  letter  and  published  it 
and  sent  it  to  France,  to  England,  and  you 
got  it  from  England,  here  in  America,  and  so 
the  whole  world  knew  the  letter." 

The  Cardinal  issued  his  second  important; 
war-time  pastoral  three  months  later,  offering 
it  in  Lent  as  a  tribute  to  the  late  Pope  Pius  X 
and  to  his  successor  Pope  Benedict  XI  and 
at  the  same  time  as  an  exposition  of  the  idea 
behind  the  institution  of  the  papacy.  Alto- 
gether it  forms  a  lucid  and  masterly  analysis 
of  the  principles  governing  the  Catholic 
society. 

The  churchman  sees  other  societies  and  gov- 
ernments of  the  world  falling  asunder,  victims 
of  the  tooth  of  Time,  while  the  Roman  Church, 

81 


Mercier 

because  of  its  divine  sources  of  life,  ever  re- 
news its  youth.  Outwardly,  it  preserves  its 
continuit}^  and  unity  through  its  hierarchical 
constitution,  also  divinely  ordained,  at  whose 
summit  stands  the  Pope,  the  sui^reme  interpre- 
ter of  the  written  and  traditional  doctrine  of 
Christ  and  his  first  apostles,  the  chief  law- 
giver of  Christian  society.  Inwardly,  because 
it  is  a  living  organism,  it  is  constantly  assimi- 
lating from  the  outer  world,  from  every  de- 
partment of  life,  and  developing  in  accordance 
with  the  general  laws  controlling  organized 
beings. 

On  this  constant  and  universal  assimilation 
of  substance  from  the  outside  world,  rests  the 
Cardinal's  chief  defense  of  the  doctrine  of 
papal  infallibility  promulgated  b\''  the  Vatican 
Council  of  1870.  For  if  the  church  is  to  escape 
the  fate  of  other  societies,  these  external 
products  must  be  critically  examined  by  a 
supreme  and  inexhaustible  authority,  who  must 
define  the  rule  for  the  support  of  the  Church, 
the  rule  of  the  truth  of  faith  and  morals. 

82 


Pastoral  Letters 


Near  the  beginning  of  the  letter,  in  refuta- 
tion of  a  certain  criticism  of  the  late  Pope  Pius 
X,  the  Cardinal  has  already  accounted  for  the 
continuance  of  the  natural,  human  qualities  of 
the  Holy  Father,  along  with  his  gifts  of  in- 
spiration. *'  Certainly  a  powerful  personality 
cannot  reveal  itself  fully,  without  riding 
rough-shod  over  humdrum  habits,  without  en- 
dangering even  estimable  claims  of  only  sec- 
ondary importance.  Any  far-reaching  course 
of  action  demands  some  violence  at  the  start; 
for  humanity,  as  a  whole,  is  not  roused  without 
a  shock  from  its  drowsiness  or  from  its  dreams. 
On  the  way  to  the  desired  end  some  even 
legitimate  preoccupations  are  apt  to  be  dis- 
turbed and  to  suffer.  These  lesser  human 
vexations  are  the  reverse  side  of  the  triumph 
of  any  great  cause.  Assuredly  if  Providence 
willed,  it  could  inspire  all  rulers  with  a  perfect 
wisdom,  and  could  require  of  the  world  an 
obedience  involving  no  sacrifice.  But  it  is 
pleased  instead  to  leave  all  leaders,  even  Popes, 
their  own  temperament  and  emotions,  and  even 

83 


Mercier 

those  weaknesses  which  we  term  the  defects  of 
their  good  qualities.  It  requires  that  submis- 
sion should  be  emiobled  by  hmiiility,  patience 
and  constancy ;  and  this  spectacle  of  the  moral 
order,  viewed  in  its  fullness,  is  none  the  less 
fine,  for  being  more  human.  In  history  as  in 
nature,  departures  from  the  course  of  law  are 
exceptional. 

"The  church  on  earth  is  but  a  part  of  the 
heavenly  church,  not  differing  from  it  in. 
essence.  Through  Christ"  they  are  one;  "the 
Episcopate  one  with  the  Pope,  the  Pope  one 
with  the  Episcopate"  —  that  is  the  living  prin- 
ciple of  the  unity  of  the  church,  that  is  vir- 
tually the  whole  church  in  its  unity  and 
fruitfulncss.  Through  the  Episcopate  united 
with  the  Pope,  the  earthly  representative  of 
Christ,  the  whole  church  forms  only  one  body 
with  Clirist  who  in  his  divine  nature  is  one  witH 
God  Himself." 

This  letter  turned  men's  minds  for  a  moment 
away  from  the  ])itter  reality  of  a  divided  and 
suffering    world,    toward    a    visioned    world 

84 


Pastoral  Letters 


united  under  the  law  of  love.  Its  call  to  Chris- 
tian unity  carried  indirectly  an  appeal  for  na- 
tional solidarity,  and  must  have  strengthened 
the  common  resistance  to  the  attempt  to  de- 
stroy that  solidarity. 

The  people  realized  their  need  of  the  spirit- 
ual secour  dispensed  from  Malines ;  they  fed  on 
it.  But  as  months  lengthened  to  years,  and 
information  from  the  world  outside,  whence 
alone  actual  deliverance  could  come,  filtered 
more  and  more  rarely  into  their  prison,  every- 
where the  cry  went  up  for  something  more, 
some  definite  news  as  to  the  true  situation, 
some  authentic  interpretation  of  the  ceaseless 
booming  of  the  guns  to  the  south.  And  when 
it  was  known,  in  January,  1916,  that  His 
Eminence  had  succeeded  in  his  effort  to  re- 
spond to  the  call  of  Pope  Benedict  for  an  edu- 
cational conference  at  Rome,  and  that  he 
would  be  allowed  to  pass  through  the  electric 
barrier  to  Holland,  the  interest  was  intense. 
The  whole  country  counted  the  days  till  his 
return  —  if  return  he  might.    The  lenten  pas- 

85 


Mercier 

toral  '*  My  Return  from  Rome "  was  the  re- 
ward of  their  waitmg,  though  in  it  the  Cardinal 
was  not  able  to  speak  freely.  "  There  are 
many  things  I  cannot  tell  you,"  he  said,  "  You 
will  understand  me."  And  they  did,  and  read 
between  the  lines  of  his  account  of  the  touching 
kindness  of  his  reception  by  the  Holy  Father 
and  of  the  enthusiastic  acclamations  marking 
his  journej'. 

He  refreshed  their  long-tried  courage  by 
telling  them  how  it  was  estimated  by  the  out- 
side nations : 

"  The  moral  level  of  neutrals,  or  formerly 
neutral  nations,  is  higher.  They  understand 
the  spirit  of  sacrifice,  they  do  homage  to  it, 
they  appreciate  it  in  you,  thej'^  admire  you. 
Your  generation  has  made  a  glorious  entrance 
into  history. 

"  Is  this  not  a  conquest,  my  brethren,  and,  ; 

in  the  sense  in  which  moral  advantage  is  more 
highly  esteemed  than  material  advantage,  are  i 

you  not  the  most  glorious  conquerors?  n 

"  Oh  yes !  you  weei^,  I  Ivnow ;  there  is  mourn- 
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Pastoral  Letters 


ing  on  every  hand.  .  .  .  The  day  will  come 
when  we  shall  weep  no  more. 

"But  from  the  first  I  warned  you,  that  in 
my  humble  opinion,  our  trial  would  be  a  long 
one,  and  that  success  would  be  the  guerdon  of 
the  nations  who  can  endure  most  bravely. 

"My  conviction,  both  natural  and  super- 
natural, of  our  ultimate  victory  is  more  firmly 
rooted  in  my  soul  than  ever.  If,  indeed,  it  could 
have  been  shaken,  the  assurance  given  me  by 
several  disinterested  and  careful  observers  of 
the  general  situation,  notably  those  belonging 
to  the  two  Americas,  would  have  sufficed  to 
consolidate  it. 

"  We  shall  triumph,  do  not  doubt  it,  but  we 
are  not  yet  at  the  end  of  our  sufferings." 

And  then  to  give  them  the  definite  informa- 
tion they  longed  for,  he  added, 

"France,  England  and  Russia  have  en- 
tered into  a  compact  not  to  conclude  peace 
until  the  independence  of  Belgium  is  com- 
pletely restored,  and  an  ample  indenmity 
has  been  made  to  her.    Italy,  in  her  turn,  has 

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given  her  adhesion  to  the  London  compact. 
*'  Our  future  is  not  doubtful. 

"  But  we  must  prepare  for  it.  We  shall 
prepare  for  it  by  cultivating  the  virtue  of 
patience  and  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice." 

Naturally,  the  Invader  objected  to  all  of 
this,  but  the  paragraph  that  particularly  in- 
censed him  Mas  the  following: 

" '  The  King  is  not  saved  by  a  great  army', 
says  the  Psalmist ; '  vain  is  the  horse  for  safety, 
neither  shall  he  be  saved  by  the  abundance  of 
his  strength.  .  .  .  Our  soul  waiteth  for  the 
Lord,  for  he  is  our  helper  and  protector.' 

*'  Imagine  a  belligerent  nation,  sure  of  its 
army  corps,  its  nmnitions,  its  commanders, 
"with  ever}''  prospect  of  gaining  a  victory.  If 
Gk)d  should  allow  the  germs  of  an  epidemic  to 
spread  among  the  ranks,  all  optimistic  pre- 
visions would  at  once  be  brought  to  naught." 

According  to  the  enemy,  in  so  futilely  hold- 
ing out  hope  the  Cardinal  was  not  only  vio- 
lating the  laws  for  speaking  which  had  been 
laid  do\\TJ  for  him,  but  he  was  injuring  and 

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Pastoral  Letters 


also  inflaming  the  mind  of  the  Belgian  j)eople ! 

In  the  long  drawn-out  anguish  of  the  ever 
darkening  days  of  1916,  it  was  inevitable  that 
courage  should  falter,  and  the  shepherd,  watch- 
ing his  flock  wdth  anxious  vigilance,  tried  to 
say  the  word  that  would  lift  up  the  heart.  He 
sought  to  restore  courage  by  throwing  the 
events  of  the  moment  against  the  background 
of  eternity.  Nowhere  does  he  speak  more  elo- 
quently, or  with  more  sjolendid  vision,  than  in 
"  The  Voice  of  God."  Very  characteristically, 
his  first  word  is  one  of  sympathy: 

"Yes,  indeed,  our  trial  is  very  long.  Day 
after  day,  I  hear  you  repeating  this,  and  there 
is  nobody,  I  think,  who  does  not  feel  as  you 
do."  It  is  only,  he  points  out,  in  reading  their 
deeper  meaning,  that  we  can  become  recon- 
ciled to  events  as  they  occur. 

"  God  speaks  to  us  both  from  without  and 
from  within. 

"  From  without.  He  speaks  to  us  in  the 
wonders  of  nature  and  in  the  lessons  taught  by 
events. 

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*'  From  within  lie  speaks  to  us  in  the  gentle 
breath  of  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

"  The  Voice  of  nature  is  generally  harmoni- 
ous and  calm,  like  the  solemn  march  of  the  sun 
through  space,  like  the  murmur  of  the  waters, 
the  growth  of  corn,  the  slow  evolution  of  the 
seasons.  But  it  is  sometimes  violent  and  ter- 
rible, like  the  voice  of  thunder  and  lightning, 
or  the  upheaval  of  tempests,  or  the  shocks  that 
make  the  earth  tremble  and  pour  the  volcanic 
lava  upon  it. 

"  The  world  of  human  history,  too,  has  its 
passages  of  peace,  its  periods  of  concentrated 
work,  its  economic,  intellectual,  artistic  and 
generally  civilizing  successes.  But  then  again 
at  certain  times,  passions  are  loosened,  hate 
stifles  the  very  voice  of  love,  and  death  seems 
for  a  while  to  triumph  over  life. 

"And  yet  God  speaks  to  us  all  of  the 
time. 

"Every  historical  i^criod  is  a  page  in  the 
divine  book  of  Providence. 

"  But  ANhatcver  may  happen  to  you,  there  is 
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Pastoral  Letters 


something  in  you  that  no  man,  no  event  can 
touch  —  your  soul. 

"  My  brethren,  do  but  look  up  and  keep  your 
eyes  fixed  on  the  polar  star  of  your  eternity. 

"And  you  will  see  created  circumstances 
sinking  into  the  half-light  of  things  of  nothing 
that  pass  away,  and  that  are  called  in  the 
Scriptures  (that  other  direct  and  personal 
voice  of  God)  now  smoke  that  glides  and  dis- 
appears, now  a  cloud  that  dissolves,  now  a 
shadow  that  vanishes,  now  a  flower  that  fades, 
now  a  wave  lost  in  the  ocean  whence  it  rose. 

"Eternity! 

"My  Brethren,  all  of  us  lack  courage  to 
look  it,  even  once,  full  in  the  face.  Embrace 
it  as  closely  as  you  can ;  fix  it  but  for  an  hour, 
for  a  half  hour,  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  in 
your  imagination;  let  your  thoughte  cleave  to 
it;  and  during  that  quarter  of  an  hour  deter- 
mine to  see  naught  but  that ;  and,  in  that,  God, 
God  made  man,  your  Creator,  your  Savior, 
your  Judge;  with  yourselves  in  face  of  it, 
made  for  it.    Determine  for  that  brief  while 

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Mcrcicr 

to  forget  all  that  is  not  eternity.  You  will  rise 
again  enlightened,  tempered  like  steel,  with 
minds  made  up  and  resolution  firm." 

"  Once  we  have  attempted  to  see  to-day  in 
the  light  of  forever,  we  can  go  further  and 
seek  to  unlock  the  mystery  of  events.  The  key 
is  to  be  found  in  the  sublime  mystery  of  the 
death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the 
fact  that  from  dcatli  arose  life." 

I  have  already  referred  in  Chapter  I  to  the 
pastoral,  "  Per  Cruceni  ad  Lucem,"  which  ap- 
peared during  this  same  summer  of  1916,  and 
which  the  Cardinal  read  in  Sainte  Gudule. 

During  the  following  fall  and  winter 
and  from  then  until  the  close  of  the  war, 
universal  fear  and  grief  centered  about  the 
most  infamous  of  the  Invader's  practices,  that 
of  deporting  Belgian  workmen  to  Germany, 
or  behind  the  fighting  lines.  And  though  Car- 
dinal ]\Icrcicr  was  ])attling  as  he  never  had  be- 
fore, directly  with  the  German  governing 
powers,  he  was  unwearyingly  issuing  instruc- 
tions   to    his    priests    regarding    their    duties 

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Pastoral  Letters 


towards  the  pitiful  victims  of  this  slavery  sys- 
tem, and  talking  directly  to  the  people  them- 
selves, as  often  as  he  could.  The  Epiphany 
pastoral  of  1917,  "  The  Duty  of  a  Priest,"  and 
the  later,  "  Courage,  INIy  Brethren,"  are  among 
the  most  important  utterances  of  this  period. 
And  in  1918,  the  lenten  message,  "  The  Mean- 
ing of  Events,"  because  of  its  length —  printed, 
it  forms  a  brochure  of  some  thirty-five  pages  — 
and  the  loftiness  of  its  thought,  stands  first. 

The  attempt  to  analyze  events  in  perspec- 
tive, against  the  background  of  the  past,  and 
of  the  future,  is  always  profitable.  When  such 
a  trained  thinker  and  spiritual  seer  as  the  Car- 
dinal offers  an  interpretation  of  them,  human- 
ity becomes  his  debtor.  In  his  review  of  the 
past  and  the  present,  he.  sees  proved,  first,  the 
truth  that  suffering,  accepted,  draws  one  closer 
to  God.  And  he  adds,  almost  sternly,  "  It  is 
necessary  to  look  suffering  in  the  face,  and  to 
define  one's  attitude  toward  it.  You  are  at 
liberty  to  revolt  against  it,  but  the  inexorable 
law  will  break  your  resistance.    ...    If  the 

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Mercter 

cliild  resists  under  the  hand  of  the  mother  who 
is  dressing  its  wounds,  the  pain  is  sharper. 
...  If  you  supj)ort  with  patience,  the  sorrow 
that  falls  upon  you,  you  will  be  surprised  at 
the  relative  ease  with  which  you  can  domi- 
nate it. 

"  It  is,  then,  in  your  power  to  suffer.  Suf- 
fering, accepted  for  a  legitimate  or  superior 
end,  honors  humanity.  Xothing  great  is  ac- 
complished without  it.  Allien  i^eoplcs,  fami- 
lies, individuals,  have  no  other  ambition  than 
to  enjoy  themselves,  the}"  are  doomed  to 
decadence. 

"  Divine  Providence  arrested  the  nations  on 
the  slope  where  the}'  were  descending,  each 
more  or  less  precipitately,  and  saved  them  in 
recalling  them  to  the  law  of  sacrifice,  blessed 
by  Providence." 

The  second  lesson  which  the  study  of  recent 
history  teaches,  is  that  in  all,  God  reveals  him- 
self as  the  ^Master.  Such  social  evils  as  alco- 
holism, the  breaking  of  the  law  of  rest  and 
devotion  on  the  Sabbath,  the  neglect  of  familiar 

94 


Pastoral  Letters 


virtues,  and  such  aj^ostasy  in  the  intellectual 
world  as  resulted  from  the  pernicious  teachings 
of  Kant  and  helped  to  hring  about  the  war;  — 
from  these  evils,  through  the  sufferings  of  this 
war;  God  will  call  us  back  to  righteousness. 
For,  and  here  the  Primate  announces  his  third 
point,  just  as  in  the  suffering  of  Christ  was  the 
promise  of  the  resurrection,  so  in  every  trial 
of  ours,  is  the  seed  of  the  new  life. 

"  The  key  of  history,  my  very  dear  brothers, 
is  in  the  exaltation  of  the  Holy  Cross. 

"  Suppose,"  he  continues,  "  that  on  August 
4, 1914,  people  had  not  known  how  to  die;  sup- 
pose that  the  youth  of  our  nation,  instead  of 
running  to  the  bureaus  of  voluntary  inscrip- 
tion, had  hidden  themselves  from  danger, 
placing  repose  and  enjoyment  above  sacrifice, 
where  would  we  be  now? 

"  They  have  revealed  to  you  that  you  are  not 
in  this  world  to  enjoy  yourselves,  but  to  learn 
how  to  die. 

"And  if  you,  wives  and  mothers,  sorrowing 
for  your  husbands,  and  sons,  absent,  or  per- 

95 


Mercier 

liaps  gone  forever,  if  you  should  seek  to  shorten 
the  time  of  our  suffering,  in  demanding  a  peace 
that  would  be  no  more  than  a  truce  or  a  snare, 
would  you  not  be  sullying  the  honor  of  your 
country? 

"  To  die, —  that  is  the  greatest  and  most 
beautiful  act  possible  to  man. 

"  There  is  nothing,  nor  can  there  ever  be 
anything,  in  any  possible  world,  more  sublime 
than  the  free  immolation  of  Calvar5\" 

And  thus  the  Cardinal  concludes  in  1918, 
as  he  began  in  1914,  with  the  preaching  of  the 
law  of  love  and  sacrifice  as  the  law  that  saves. 

None  of  the  attempts  to  silence  him  had 
succeeded,  and  throughout  the  four  fateful 
years  his  letters  and  announcements  continued 
to  appear.  Across  the  days  of  darkness  and 
the  nights  of  weeping,  his  voice  carried  com- 
fort and  counsel,  until  the  interminable  years 
were  finally  ended,  and  on  November  15,  1918, 
he  could  print  "I^a  Victoire!  Homage  k  la 
Justice  de  Dieu!" 

"On  Monday,  the  lltli  of  November,  at 
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Pastoral  Letters 


three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  all  the  bells  of 
the  city  of  Malines  exulted,  chanting  a  hymn 
of  victory." 

How  little  lies  on  the  surface  of  words! 
Back  of  the  Cardinal's  statement  that  all  the 
bells  exulted,  is  the  brave  battle  he  fought  to 
save  them ;  they  were  there  to  exult  because  he 
had  won.  For  toward  the  close  of  February, 
1918,  the  Germans  ordered  an  inventory  of  the 
bells  and  organs  of  churches,  which  the  Car- 
dinal followed  swiftly  by  a  letter  of  advice  to 
his  clergy.  ''  This  news  will  deeply  affect 
you,"  he  said.  "  Taught  by  experience,  we  can 
no  longer  entertain  any  illusion.  The  inven- 
tory of  to-day  is  the  signal  of  the  requisition  of 
to-morrow. 

"  We  add  that  the  taking  away  of  our  bells 
against  the  wish  of  the  religious  authority  and 
in  spite  of  its  protest  is  sacrilege. 

"  The  bell  is  a  sacred  object;  its  function  is 
sacred.  It  announces  your  initiation  into 
Christian  life,  your  confirmation,  your  first 
communion,   your  Christian  marriage.     The 

97 


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ercter 


bell  weeps  over  your  dead.  ...  It  associates 
its  prayer  with  all  the  great  memories,  happy 
and  unhaj)py,  of  our  comitry. 

*'  Yes,  the  seizure  of  the  bells  will  be  a  prof- 
anation and  whoever  cooperates  in  it  will  lend 
a  hand  to  sacrilege. 

"  In  the  name  of  the  liberty  of  the  Church, 
in  the  name  of  the  sanctity  of  Catholic  wor- 
ship, in  the  name  of  international  law,  we  con- 
demn and  reprove  the  seizure  of  the  bells  and 
organs  of  our  churches,  we  forbid  the  clergy 
and  the  faithful  of  our  diocese  to  help  in  re- 
moving them,  we  refuse  to  accept  the  price  of 
the  sacred  objects  which  are  torn  from  us  by 
force. 

*'  Strengthened  by  an  unconquerable  hope, 
we  await  the  hour  of  our  God." 

The  bells  of  ^Nlalines  remained.  And  so 
their  defender  could  write  in  the  final  week  of 
victory,  "The  bells  of  the  city  of  Malincs 
exulted,  cliaiiting  a  hymn  of  victory. 

"On  Monday,  the  11th  of  November,  at 
three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  national 

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colors  floated  on  high  from  the  tower  of  Saint 
Rombauld,  outspreading  their  folds  toward 
Termonde  and  Ghent,  calling  to  our  midst  the 
King  and  his  soldiers.  And  the  announcement 
has  come  that  on  Tuesday  following,  the  19th 
of  November,  Albert  the  INIagnanimous  will 
return  as  victor  to  his  capital. 

"  The  triumph  of  Justice  is  complete.  The 
public  conscience  is  satisfied. 

"  Thanks  to  Thee,  O  Divine  Master,  who  has 
blessed  our  arms,  saved  our  country,  accepted 
our  expiations,  sanctified  our  sufferings.  We 
knew,  O  God,  that  Thou  lovest  Belgium;  to- 
day no  person  can  doubt  it. 

"  Glory  be  to  God,  Sovereign  Master  of 
events;  glory  be  to  the  allied  nations,  power- 
ful artisans  of  the  great  victory;  glory  be  to 
our  King,  our  army,  our  prisoners,  military 
and  civil ;  to  the  victims  of  the  deportations  and 
of  tjnranny;  to  all  who  were  the  alleviators  of 
the  general  miserx'';  glory  to  the  Belgian  na- 
tion, rejuvenated  through  her  sacrifice! 

"To-day,  I  have  but  one  thought,  that  of 
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translating  yowx  Urst  impressions,  I  wish  to 
proclaim  in  j^our  name  the  justice  of  God. 

"  Xo,  my  brothers,  God  has  not  our 
impatience.  He  works  Avith  power  and  with 
softness.  Generally  he  allows  the  natural  de- 
velopment of  secondary  causes.  He  permits 
even  that  men  abuse,  up  to  a  certain  point,  their 
liberty,  because  he  knows  that  in  his  oa\ti  hour. 
He  will  draw  good  from  evil,  and  that  iniquity 
itself  will  surrender  before  His  unfailing 
justice. 

"  Yes,  God  is  great  and  He  works  greatlJ^ 

"  Glory  be  to  God,  my  dear  brothers.  Glory 
to  his  justice. 

"  ^lay  the  Belgian  i^eople,  may  the  con- 
querors and  the  conquered  remember  His  jus- 
tice forever! "  ^ 


1  It  has  been  difficult  to  choose  from  among  the  pastorals  and 
to  cut  those  selected.  Fortunately,  those  who  wish  it,  will 
soon  he  able  to  possess  the  autlioritative  and  complete  edition 
of  the  Cardinal's  letters,  now  being  printed  by  M.  Dessain 
of  Malines. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  CAEDINAL  AND  ROME  IN  WAR-TIME 

Would  the  course  of  the  war  have  been 
changed  had  Cardinal  Mercier  of  Malines  in- 
stead of  Cardinal  della  Chiesa  of  Bologna  been 
elected  pope  in  August,  1914  ?  The  irrefutable 
clarity  of  the  Cardinal's  pronouncement  on 
the  justice  and  injustice  of  the  war,  his  uncom- 
promising arraignment  of  wrong,  and  daunt- 
less championship  of  right,  set  against  what  to 
many  has  seemed  the  unnecessary  quiescence 
of  the  Holy  See,  has  led  to  this  question,  which 
is,  of  course,  one  of  those  queries,  history  so 
often  evokes  but  does  not  answer. 

Certainly  the  first  Christmas  message  of  the 
Belgian  Primate  sounded  around  the  world 
with  comforting  and  restoring  power.  Suffer- 
ing millions  heard  in  his  voice,  the  echo,  across 
the  ages,  of  the  immortal  challenge  of  Gregory 
yil  to  Henry  IV,  and  of  Thomas  a  Becket 

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Mercier 

to  Henry  II  of  England.  Perhaps  it  was  bet- 
ter for  the  nations  that  this  j)relate  was  outside 
the  inhibiting  walls  of  the  Vatican,  freer  to 
speak  and  to  act. 

Pius  X  died  August  20,  1914,  of  a  broken 
heart,  it  is  said,  as  he  saw  the  world  engulfed 
in  blood.  At  that  time.  Cardinal  jMercier  was 
obliged  to  leave  his  threatened  city  and  its  ter- 
rified inhabitants  (his  train  was  the  last  one 
out  of  jNIalines  for  some  time,  since  the  Ger- 
mans tore  up  the  tracks  immediately  after  its 
departure)  to  hasten  to  Rome  to  assist  in  the 
election  of  the  new  pope.  There  were  many 
who  believed  the  choice  would  fall  on  himself. 
His  chances  had  been  freely  and  favorably 
discussed  in  conversation  and  in  print.  I  re- 
member how  inevitably,  later,  those  of  us  who 
followed  him  under  the  Occupation  thought 
of  him  as  qualified  for  the  highest  post  of  lead- 
ership the  Church  had  to  offer.  It  is  said  that 
in  this  191 -t  Conclave,  some  votes  were  cast 
for  him,  though  the  secret  of  the  election  has 
been  well  guarded.    The  fact  tliat  he  was  Pri- 

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The  Cardinal  and  Rome 


mate  of  one  of  the  belligerent  countries  may 
have  been  sufficient  to  bar  him.  At  any  rate, 
when  the  crimson  velvet  canopies  outspread 
about  the  cardinals  were  lifted,  in  sign  that  the 
choice  had  been  made,  the  one  above  Cardinal 
della  Chiesa  remained  lowered.  The  Italian, 
and  not  the  Belgian,  was  pope.  Cardinal  Mer- 
cier  hurried  to  the  new  pontiff  to  receive  his 
first  embrace  and  to  beg  that  his  first  blessing 
might  be  given  to  desolated  Belgium. 

At  Rome  he  had  received  tidings  of  the  de- 
struction of  an  important  part  of  Louvain,  of 
the  further  bombardment  of  Malines,  and  par- 
ticularly of  the  injury  to  his  Archbishop's 
palace  and  his  beautiful  church  beyond  the 
Dyle  River.  He  refers  to  his  suffering  on 
hearing  this  news  in  the  Christmas  pastoral, 
where  he  says:  "Afar  from  my  diocese,  with- 
out means  of  communication  with  you,  I  was 
compelled  to  lock  my  grief  within  my  o^^^l 
afflicted  heart,  and  carry  it,  with  the  thought 
of  3'^ou,  which  never  left  me,  to  the  foot  of  the 
Crucifix." 

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Mercier 

From  Rome,  he  hastened,  with  anxious 
heart,  back  to  his  flock.  Paris  —  England  — 
Holland — Antwerp,  was  his  route,  and  he  was 
acclaimed  at  stations  on  his  return  as  he  had 
been  on  his  arrival.  Regaining  INIalincs  he  at 
once  threw  his  whole  energy  into  the  tremend- 
ous task  of  sustaining  and  develoi)ing  the 
national  courage.  As  1914  closed,  liis  voice 
rang  in  comfort  and  exhortation  across  the 
world,  seeking  to  help  it  to  enter  the  new  year 
on  the  tide  of  faith  and  fortitude.  1915 
dragged  its  torturing  length.  During  it,  the 
Germans,  who  each  day  recognized  more 
clearly  the  dangerous  opponent  they  had  in 
this  prelate,  endeavored  to  bring  about  a  break 
between  him  and  Rome.  Of  these  attempts 
and  the  Pope's  repulse  of  them  and  of  other 
things.  Cardinal  Mercier  can  now  for  the  first 
time  freely  speak,  though  he  had,  as  early  as 
April,  1915,  in  his  pastoral  "Devotion  to 
Christ,"  attempted  to  silence  certain  calunmies 
against  both  Pope  Pius  and  Pope  Benedict. 
K'ow  he  speaks  without  restraint,  in  a  recent 

104 


The  Cardinal  and  Rome 


vigorous  pastoral  (August,  1919),  on  the  atti- 
tude of  Pope  Benedict  during  the  war. 

This  defence,  for  such  it  is,  was  undertaken 
because  of  the  distant  and  near  criticism  of  His 
Holiness  that  reached  JMalines,  even  before  the 
isolating  walls  were  shattered.  It  sorely 
troubled  him,  especially  since  some  of  the  criti- 
cism centered  on  the  pope's  supposed  disap- 
proval of  his  own  action.  The  letter  is  in  his 
customary  lucid  and  impressive  style,  and  has 
been  widely  printed  and  reported.  Including, 
as  it  does  at  the  end.  Pope  Benedict's  reply,  it 
stands  as  a  historical  document  of  importance. 

After  reminding  his  readers  of  the  circum- 
stances of  the  Occupation,  which  prevented 
him  from  freely  explaining  what  he  knew  to  be 
the  attitude  of  the  Pope,  he  throws  light  on 
some  of  the  difficulties  of  1915.  "At  the  end 
of  the  year  1915,"  he  says,  "  the  German  press, 
and  that  section  of  the  Belgian  press  in  the 
pay  of  the  enemy,  set  to  work  to  draw  a  con- 
trast between  the  acts  of  the  Belgian  Episco- 
pacy and  those  of  the  sovereign  Pontiff.    They 

105 


Mercier 

tried  to  give  color  to  the  idea  that  the  Holy 
See  disavowed  my  conduct.  We  did  not  be- 
lieve this  statement  .  .  .  but  our  enemies 
from  outside,  and  from  inside,  accused  us  with 
such  M'arnith  of  mixing  in  politics  and  praised 
the  neutrality  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  in  such 
a  way  that  your  affection  for  us  was  not  with- 
out a  certain  apprehension,  and  the  filial  con- 
fidence in  our  Holy  Father  was  lowered  with 
many  in  proportion  as  fears  for  our  person 
became  more  lively." 

1915  closed  in  darkness,  1916  began  more 
darkly.  At  its  opening,  occurred  one  of  the 
most  dramatic  incidents  of  the  war,  for  the 
Cardinal.  In  January  the  Pope  summoned 
him  to  Rome  to  an  extraordinary  meeting  of 
the  congregation  of  seminaries  and  universi- 
ties. At  once,  the  burning  question  every- 
where was,  "  Will  he  be  allowed  to  go? "  With 
every  month  the  prison  had  become  a  more  real 
prison,  with  its  electric  death  barrier  all  along 
the  Nortli  and  ])arric'r  of  bayonet  and  battery 
on  all  other  sides.    Inside,  we  knew  something 

100 


The  Cardinal  and  Rome 


of  the  efforts  of  the  Germans  to  prevent  the 
journey,  or  if  they  must  permit  it,  to  secure 
themselves  against  the  return  of  their  danger- 
ous adversary.  "  The  Occupier,"  the  Cardinal 
in  his  letter  explains,  "caused  a  report  to  be 
circulated  to  the  effect  that  I  had  been  called 
to  Rome  to  hear  a  censure  inflicted  upon  me 
by  my  spiritual  superior.  The  enemy  said  to 
himself  that  if  I  left  I  should  return  no  more. 
At  the  end  of  a  religious  ceremony  in  the  Col- 
legiate Church  of  Sainte  Gudule  in  Brussels, 
an  officer  had  awkwardly  allowed  the  remark 
to  escape  him  that  I  had  just  passed  the 
threshold  of  my  Cathedral  for  the  last  time." 

Thus,  quite  sufficiently  warned,  he  left  no 
stone  unturned  in  his  effort  to  safeguard  botH 
his  going  and  coming.  He  sent  word  to  His 
Holiness  of  the  danger  attending  his  depart- 
ure, and  the  Vatican's  response  was  imme- 
diate. Pope  Benedict  demanded  that  neither 
Brussels  nor  Berlin  would  oppose  his  return, 
and  received  a  formal  declaration  first  by  tele- 
gram and  then  in  writing,  that  his  request  was 

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Mercier 

acceded  to.    Mgr.  Mercier  left  for  Rome  Jan- 
uary sixteenth. 

But  despite  their  promises,  German  diplo- 
mats, on  the  eve  of  the  Cardinal's  departure 
from  Italy,  tried  to  prevent  his  return  to  Bel- 
gium. "With  great  energy,"  he  says,  "the 
Vatican  held  its  own;  it  declared  that  if  my 
libert}''  was  curtailed,  the  telegraphic  corre- 
spondence and  the  letters  relating  to  my  jour- 
ney would  be  published.  Imperial  diplomacy 
gave  way ;  the  day  afterwards,  I  was  at  liberty 
to  leave  without  hindrance." 

Continuing,  he  tells  of  the  affectionate 
warmth  of  his  reception  by  the  Holy  Father: 
*'As  soon  as  I  arrived,  he  received  me  with 
open  arms,  gave  me  audiences  on  several  occa- 
sions, allowed  me  to  think  aloud  before  him, 
received  from  my  hands  several  dossiers  re- 
garding the  invasion  of  our  land,  the  crimes 
committed  by  the  Invader,  and  the  resistance 
which  we  offered  to  the  mischievous  and  per- 
fuh'ous  proceedings  of  tlie  German  government 
in  Belgium." 

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The  Cardinal  and  Rome 


In  farewell,  the  Pope  bestowed  his  photo- 
graph, below  which  was  written,  "  To  our 
venerable  Brother,  Cardinal  Mercier,  we  grant 
with  all  our  heart  the  apostolic  blessing,  assur- 
ing him  that  we  are  always  with  him  and  that 
we  share  his  sorrows  and  anxieties,  since  his 
cause  is  also  our  cause."  This  gift  and  its 
message  the  Cardinal  could  report  to  his 
people  on  his  return,  but  he  could  not  explain 
its  full  significance. 

Cardinal  Mercier  does  not  refer,  in  this  re- 
cent letter,  to  the  hurried  journey  South  of 
Cardinal  von  Hartmann  of  Cologne,  who  has- 
tened down  to  Rome  a  few  weeks  ahead  of  him, 
in  the  hope  of  carrying  back  to  his  own  people 
some  assurance  of  the  Holy  Father's  approval. 
He  got  nothing  that  he  could  publish ! 

The  Cardinal  goes  on  to  say,  "  Consider  it, 
I  ask  j'^ou :  Your  bishops  were  accused  in  Brus- 
sels and  in  Berlin  of  mixing  themselves  in 
politics ;  the  accusation  was  made  by  the  highest 
authorities  of  the  Empire  at  the  tribunal  of 
Benedict  XV;  the   accusers   flattered  them- 

109 


Mercier 

selves  that  they  would  gag  us.  They  thought 
the  Pope  would  make  hmiself  their  servant  be- 
cause they  were  stronger,  and  they  thought 
he  would  give  way  to  force. 

"The  silence  of  the  Pope  should  have  al- 
ready been  a  disavowal  of  the  accusation.  But 
here  the  Pope  speaks;  he  speaks  to  demand 
libertj^  for  my  return  to  the  midst  of  those 
\\hom  I  was  expected  to  excite  to  rebellion ;  he 
speaks  to  declare  in  ^vriting  that  he  makes  his 
o\\'n  our  cause,  our  sorrow,  our  agony." 

The  silence  of  the  Po^dc,  at  other  times,  he 
explains,  must  be  interpreted  as  approval  of 
the  attitude  of  the  Belgian  bishops. 

"  This  tacit  approval  has  applied  to  every 
day  during  fifty  months.  Every  time  that  the 
rights  of  our  people  were  abrogated,  your 
bishops  became  your  defenders ;  every  time  we 
made  it  a  matter  of  duty  to  send  to  the  head  of 
our  hierarchy  the  first  copy  of  our  i^rotests. 
Our  chief  never  censured  or  found  fault  with 
our  writings  or  our  conduct.  And  besides  the 
pastorals  and   documents   to   which   publicity 

110 


The  Cardinal  and  Rome 


was  given,  I  wrote  to  His  Holiness  several 
confidential  letters  to  keep  him  in  touch  with 
the  chief  proceedings  in  my  administration. 

"  Never,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  has  the 
Pope  demanded  a  change  of  attitude.  At  one 
exceptionally  delicate  moment,  several  Bel- 
gians allied  themselves  to  the  Germans  in  order 
to  try  to  make  His  Holiness  believe  that  I  was 
betraying  the  true  interests  of  the  people  of 
my  diocese  and  the  Belgian  people.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  self-styled  "  Council  of  Flanders  '* 
in  a  calumnious  pamphlet,  which  they  hoped  to 
transmit  to  the  Vatican  through  the  Apostolic 
Nuncio,  asked  the  Pope  to  suspend  me.  The 
Nuncio  refused  the  message.  The  '  Council  of 
Flanders '  had  to  send  it  to  Rome  by  a  round- 
about route.  Rome  never  even  took  the  trouble 
to  speak  to  me  of  it." 

The  activists'  intrigues,  whose  object  was  as 
we  know  to  break  up  Belgium,  were,  in  pur- 
suance of  a  favorite  method  of  attack,  fo- 
mented by  Germany.  On  January  29,  1917, 
the  Cardinal  gave  the  deans  of  his  diocese 

111 


Mercier 

clear  warning  of  the  perils  to  Belgium  in  these 
intrigues,  and  vigorous  instruction  concerning 
their  duty  to  crush  them.  Had  the  Pope 
leaned  toward  Germany,  he  could  have  dis- 
avowed these  instructions ;  on  the  contrary,  he 
showed  that  he  approved  of  them,  and  he  left 
the  Primate  full  liberty  of  action. 

"  The  Pope  did  not  intend  to  substitute  his 
action  for  that  of  the  Belgian  hierarchy  in 
every  particular  instance,  even  if  he  had  the 
right  and  power  to  do  so ;  he  left  to  his  subordi- 
nates their  liberty  of  judgment  and  of  action." 

Further  on,  the  i^astoral  emphasizes  the  con- 
tinued attitude  of  the  Pope  against  the  viola- 
tion of  justice:  "Following  the  violation  of 
Belgian  neutrality,  an  unquestioned  violation, 
admitted  by  the  authors  responsible  for  the 
heinous  crime,  the  Pope  in  his  consistorial  allo- 
cution of  January  22,  1915,  denounced  before 
the  world  the  culpa])ility  of  Germany.  Ger- 
man diplomacy  was  irritated  by  this;  it  tried  to 
protest.  The  Pope  recalled  all  ])elligerents 
equally  to  feelings  of  humanity.     Since  then, 

112 


The  Cardinal  and  Rome 


his  protests  against  criminal  acts  have  been 
multiplied.  It  would  be  superfluous  to  enum- 
erate them  anew." 

There  was  no  procedure  or  judicial  form, 
says  the  writer,  by  which  the  Pope  could  an- 
nounce a  final  judgment  during  war.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  the  belligerents  with  com- 
mon consent  did  not  ask  him  to  act  as  arbiter. 

"  My  dearly  beloved  Brothers,"  concludes 
the  Cardinal,  "  I  do  not  flatter  myself  with  the 
hope  that  these  explanations  will  put  an  end 
to  the  campaign  of  insinuation  and  travesties 
which  in  certain  quarters  has  been  organized 
and  carried  out  against  our  Holy  Father, 
Benedict  XV;  but  I  am  confident  that  in  the 
name  of  truth  and  justice  you  will  repel  un- 
truth more  resolutely  and  will  face  calumny 
boldly." 

This  letter  of  the  Belgian  bishops  ends  with 
Pope  Benedict's  reply  to  it: 

"  It  is  with  the  greatest  pleasure  that  we 
have  read  the  address,  which  you,  dearest  son, 
and  you,  venerable  brethren,  have  been  good 

113 


Mercter 

enough  to  send  us  the  verj'^  daj'  when,  for  the 
ifirst  time,  you  have  been  able  to  meet  again 
after  more  than  four  years'  sad  separation. 
Your  letter  recalls  the  long  series  of  calamities 
which  your  beloved  country  has  just  suffered 
and  of  which  the  sad  results  are  still  felt. 

"  With  great  delicacy  of  feeling,  you  bring 
to  mind  also  our  solemn  protests  against  the 
injustices  and  violations  of  right  committed  in 
regard  to  Belgium  as  well  as  our  efforts  to 
lessen  so  much  suffering,  and  bring  to  light 
your  undying  confidence  in  our  action. 

**  This  confidence  was  well  founded.  We 
could  not  help  viewing  your  people  with  deep 
sympathy  and  feeling  a  j^articular  pity  for 
them. 

"  WTiile  we  occupied  ourselves  with  all  our 
power  to  bring  some  alleviation  to  the  suffering 
of  so  many  of  our  sons  in  misfortune,  we  never 
ceased  to  work  to  restore  complete  political, 
military  and  economic  independence  to  your 
dear  nation,  and  likewise  to  demand  reparation 
for  the  damage  she  has  suffered." 

114 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  GOOD  SHEPHERD 

Cardinal  Mercier  has  just  landed  on  our 
shores,  and  journalists,  reporting  their  first  im- 
pressions, have  with  some  surprise  noted  that 
the  dominant  qualities  of  the  fighting  prelate 
seem  to  be  love,  and  gentleness  and  humility. 
They  expected,  perhaps,  to  see  at  once  evi- 
dences of  the  energy  and  courage  that  defied 
a  power  before  which  the  world  seemed 
crumbling.  They  went  out  to  welcome  the 
intrepid  champion  of  freedom;  they  met  the 
gentle  shepherd  of  souls. 

It  is  this  lover  of  souls  and  apostle  of  peace 
who  speaks  in  the  many  letters  ^^Titten  before 
and  during  the  war  to  the  clergy  of  his  diocese. 
IMore  directly  than  the  pastorals,  these  inti- 
mate conversations  with  his  priests  reveal  the 
tender  shepherd.  The  pastorals  were  ad- 
dressed to  the  diocese,  or  more  broadly,  to  all 

115 


Mercier 

people;  such  letters  as  those,  for  example, 
preachmg  a  retreat  to  his  priests,  are  his  ardent 
comniimings  within  the  inner  circle  of  his 
family.  In  one  of  them  he  beautifully  voices 
his  dependence  on  that  family:  "It  is  sweet, 
dear  comrades,  to  tell  you  to-day  that  I  was 
very  close  to  you  in  your  trials,  sharing  them 
with  you,  and  being  inspired  by  the  spectacle 
of  your  heroism.  I  feel  the  necessity  to  thank 
you.  You  do  not  know  to  what  point  your 
fidelity  was  strength  to  me,  and  your  docility 
a  support.  For  my  i:)art,  since  more  than  two 
months  I  have  offered  the  holy  mass  every  day 
for  you,  I  shall  continue  to  do  so  during  these 
five  weeks  of  retreat.  I  offer  you  all  that  may 
be  meritorious  in  the  work  of  each  of  my  days, 
my  pains  and  my  consolations  of  body  and  of 
heart,  all  absolutely  are  for  you.  It  is  in  sav- 
ing you  that  I  save  myself.  Sanctify  me  in 
your  turn  that  I  may  be  capable  of  sanctifying 
you.  And  thus,  my  dear  friends,  there  will 
operate  between  us  that  profound  union  in 
Christ  which  our  divine  Savior  at  the  moment 

116 


The  Good  Shepherd 


of  quitting  the  world,  asked  of  his  Father  for 
us,  his  chosen  ones,  *  May  they  be  one.'  "  The 
Cardinal  once  said  of  Pope  Benedict  XV, "  He 
permitted  me  to  think  aloud  before  him;"  in 
his  letters  he  thinks  aloud  before  his  priests. 
In  the  preface  to  the  most  recent  collection  of 
them,  under  the  title,  "  The  Inner  Life,"  he 
writes:  "  In  this  humble  work,  I  have  set  down 
the  most  intimate  things  of  my  soul." 

A  study  of  the  five  hundred  pages  of  this 
book  leaves  one  with  two  outstanding  portraits. 
One  pictures  a  good  shepherd,  a  lover  of  every 
lamb,  who  yearns  to  bring  each  safely  within 
the  fold  of  temporal  and  eternal  hapipness; 
he  is  solicitous,  humble,  dependent  on  the  loy- 
alty and  security  and  felicity  of  his  flock  for 
his  own  joy;  he  both  leads  and  follows.  The 
other  represents  the  rapt  contemplator  of  di- 
vine mysteries,  prostrate  before  the  throne  of 
Grace;  his  spirit,  transported  on  the  wings  of 
faith,  loses  itself  in  the  vision  of  the  infinite 
reaches  of  divine  love  as  revealed  in  the 
Catholic  conception  of  the  mystery  of  the  Holy 

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Mercier 

Trinity,  in  the  plan  of  redemption  for  man,  in 
the  possibility  of  present  union  of  the  human 
spirit  with  the  divine,  and  of  the  eternal  reward 
of  ever-continued  being  in  absolute  oneness 
with  that  of  the  creator  and  ruler  of  the  uni- 
verse. So  he  stands  revealed  through  his  frank 
and  fervent  utterances  to  those  nearest  him. 

"  The  Inner  Life  "  is  dated  All  Saints,  1918, 
and  was  written  as  the  war  was  closing,  to  urge 
the  clergy  to  enter  into  retreat  for  five  weeks, 
and  to  ofi'er  them  material  for  thought,  and 
stimulus  toward  devotion,  during  that  period. 
Last  Christmas  there  were  a  few  early  copies  on 
the  table  of  the  little  recej)tion  room  of  the 
archiepiscopal  palace  where  we  Americans  were 
so  cordially  welcomed  throughout  the  war,  and 
as  I  was  leaving,  after  a  memorable  hour,  His 
Eminence  gave  me  one.  We  had  talked  of 
many  things  this  first  free  Christmas  morning, 
and  some  of  them,  he  felt,  were  further  dis- 
cussed in  this  volume. 

After  the  past  faith-shattering  years  the  idea 
of  the  retreat  is  especially  sympathetic.     At 

118 


The  Good  Shepherd 


this  time  when  the  world  must  call  on  all  its 
forces  and  wisdom  to  resurrect  itself,  after  five 
cataclysmic  years,  the  letters  call  for  a  period 
of  contemplation  in  preparation,  for  a  moment 
of  pause  before  the  gigantic  undertaking. 

"  We  are  surrounded  by  ruins.  On  the  eve 
of  great  reconstructions,  sharpen  your  cour- 
age ;  arm  your  wills.  More  than  ever  our  com- 
plete accord  is  necessary. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  the  fact  of  our  uniting 
in  this  sinister  hour  in  the  calm  of  a  spiritual 
retreat  will  be  a  public  expression  of  faith 
and  of  abandon  to  the  divine  will. 

"  Yes,  while  the  cannon  roar,  and  the  masses 
agitate,  and  arms  clash,  while  over  all  the  sur- 
face of  the  globe  the  tempest  rages,  come  here 
during  five  weeks  in  successive  groups,  and 
closing  the  ear  to  the  tumult  of  the  catastrophe, 
pass  the  frontiers  of  your  anguish,  pass  beyond 
your  sufferings,  and  letting  yourselves  be  dom- 
inated by  that  which  is  eternal,  rest  in  the 
voluntary  forgetfulness  of  that  which  passes, 
upon  the  Heart,  ardently  loved,  of  Him  who, 

119 


Mercier 

in  the  apparently  deserted  barge  of  the  world, 
sure  of  the  wisdom  of  his  designs  and  of  his 
onmipotence  and  unfailing  love,  sleeps  besides 
the  propellor. 

"  Will  this  not  be  to  give  to  men  and  angels 
a  grandiose  spectacle  of  faith  and  abandon, 
and  to  God  a  magnificent  testimony  of  adora- 
tion and  acquiescence  full  of  love  in  his  most 
mysterious  designs? " 

This,  is,  however,  to  be  a  period  of  contem- 
plation only  in  preparation  for  greater  ac- 
tivity; for  this  prelate  of  powerful  initiative, 
far  from  preaching  detachment  from  life,  dis- 
tinctly counsels  the  reverse.  In  the  Epiphany 
pastoral  of  1917,  "  The  Duty  of  a  Priest,"  he 
says:  *'  I  cannot  admit  that,  under  the  pretext 
of  a  need  for  greater  retirement  in  piety,  the 
Christian  should  isolate  himself,  in  a  disdain- 
ful detachment,  and  contemplate  the  war,  from 
outside,  as  if  it  could  only  affect  souls  of  a 
secondary  quality.  Faith  should  impregnate 
the  whole  life,  the  intercourse  of  individuals 
and  that  of  societies.     The  events  of  history, 

120 


The  Good  Shepherd 


great  or  small,  resounding  or  hidden,  are  all 
in  the  service  of  the  highest  work  of  divine 
Providence,  the  Church  of  Christ." 

In  the  preface  of"  The  Inner  Life  "  in  apolo- 
gizing for  repetition  and  lengthiness  in  the  six 
chapters,  the  Cardinal  explains  the  difficulty 
he  had  to  find  undisturbed  hours  for  writing. 
"  Nevertheless,"  he  says,  "  obeying  the  counsel 
of  St.  Francis  de  Sales,  I  have  gathered  all 
the  little  morsels  of  leisure  that  could  be  saved, 
here  and  there,  from  the  pressure  of  interrup- 
tions, to  give  them  to  this  work,  esteeming  that 
I  could  not  refuse  a  service,  however  defective, 
which  your  piety  solicited."  But  the  iteration 
for  which  he  apologizes,  far  from  detracting 
from  his  work,  adds  to  it  a  certain  biblical 
impressiveness  and  beauty. 

The  six  conversations  combine  a  purely 
spiritual  appeal,  ardentlj'^  portraj'ing  the  duty 
and  beauty  of  complete  dedication  of  one's  life 
to  God,  with  a  certain  amount  of  theological 
and  scholastic  discussion.  The  reason  for  this 
double  character  of  the  book  appears  in  the 

121 


Mercier 

following  lilies :  "  It  was  my  first  intention 
to  avoid  such  technical  accessories  as  you  wdll 
run  across,  and  not  to  mix  abstract  specula- 
tions with  a  work  that  I  wished  to  be  living  and 
entirely  si)iritual.  But  I  have  acceded  to  the 
desire  of  several  priests  that  I  add  to  my  work 
some  scholastic  explanations.  Besides,  one  can 
see  the  parenthesis  in  advance  and  leap  over 
it;  the  parenthesis  suppressed,  the  thread  of 
the  thought  can  be  easilj''  recovered.'* 

Pohiting  briefly  in  advance  to  some  of  the 
things  driven  liome  by  the  four  years'  fiery 
trial,  the  good  shepherd  says : 

"  To  love  is  to  w^ish  well. 

"  I  would  see  you  all  happy.  I  liave  the 
most  ardent  desire  to  contribute  to  your  well- 
being.  And  by  that  I  mean  not  only  your 
eternal,  but  your  terrestrial  happiness.  The 
one  is,  moreover,  a  part  of  the  other.  Eartlily 
happiness  is  but  that  of  heaven  anticipated. 
Cardinal  Deschamii  used  to  like  to  say  that  our 
heaven  is  very  close,  at  the  other  side  of  the 
wall.    The  wall  is  this  agitated  and  perishable 

122 


The  Good  Shepherd 


envelope,  the  body.  The  body  falls,  and  the 
soul  sees  God,  returns  to  God.  From  the  trial 
it  passes  to  beatitude. 

"  ]VIen  of  little  faith  that  we  are,  why  do  we 
not  realize  in  our  daily  life  that  which  we  be- 
lieve? Have  we  not  been  sufficiently  shaken 
during  these  four  years  of  war?  Have  we  not 
been  sufficiently  warned  that  it  is  insensate 
to  live  for  terrestrial  interests ;  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  simplify  our  material  life,  our  moral 
life,  liberate  ourselves  from  mortal  attach- 
ments? Our  soul  is  the  dwelling-place  of  God. 
To  live  a  life  in  intimate  relationship  with 
God  is  to  live  the  life  eternal  of  God,  the  spirit- 
ual life,  the  interior  life.  We  are  on  the  eve 
of  tremendous  reconstructions.  Let  us  not  fall 
back  into  the  errors  of  the  past.  May  our 
actions  spring  from  the  sources  of  grace,  let  us 
drink  in  large  draughts  of  the  living  waters 
that  mount  toward  eternity.  Taking  to  our- 
selves the  counsel  of  the  apostle,  let  us  live  a 
moral  and  priestly  life  without  fissure,  let  the 
interior  be  holy  and  sanctify  the  exterior." 

123 


Mercier 

And  then  at  the  close  of  his  preface,  he  sums 
up  the  main  thought  of  the  letters  to  follow  in 
a  few  words:  "There  are  not  in  this  work 
clearly  marked  divisions.  One  single  funda- 
mental thought  is  developed  under  a  double 
aspect,  one  objective,  the  other  subjective. 

"  God  descends  toward  the  soul  and  draws 
it  to  him.  The  soul  allows  itself  to  be  captured 
and  to  be  reunited  with  its  creator. 

"  God  acts  and  gives  himself ;  the  soul  re- 
sponds and  delivers  itself. 

"  God  lives  in  the  soul ;  the  soul  lives  in 
God." 

This  is  the  kernel  of  his  thought,  but  in  its 
full  development  it  covers  four  hundred  and 
ninety  pages.  There  is,  to  be  sure,  as  he 
warned  us,  frequent  repetition,  but  there  is 
also  sustained  and  logical  progress. 

At  the  })cginning  of  their  five  weeks*  medita- 
tion those  in  retreat  are  asked  to  reflect  on 
present  world-conditions,  on  its  dcchristianiza- 
tion  and  demoralization.  This  state,  the  Car- 
dinal tells  them,  is  due  to  many  causes,  all  of 

124 


The  Good  Shepherd 


which  may  be  summed  up  in  the  term  modern- 
ism, which  includes  the  three  great  evils, 
Naturalism,  Protestantism  and  Kantism. 
Naturalism  is  the  misunderstanding  of  the 
supernatural  order,  for  it  argues  without  faith, 
and  "reason  without  faith  is  near-sighted;  and 
the  will  without  grace  is  crippled."  Protes- 
tantism he  regards  as  a  deplorable  departure 
from  the  divinely  indicated  path  of  Christian 
progress.  And  the  rationalism  and  individual- 
ism of  Kant  he  had  long  before  the  war  vigor- 
ously attacked  as  a  philosopy  most  dangerous 
to  civilization,  which  conviction  he  saw  con- 
firmed by  the  war. 

The  remedy  for  the  sad  world  situation,  pre- 
cipitated by  modernism,  is  only  to  be  found 
in  the  more  zealous  preaching  of  the  holy  mys- 
teries of  the  Christian  religion  as  interpreted 
by  the  Catholic  Church,  and  in  a  more  com- 
plete illustration  of  Christian  beliefs  in  daily 
living.  This  conclusion  leads  him,  in  the  third 
conversation,  to  the  consideration  of  Christian 
perfection  and  the  possibility  of  its  attainment 

125 


Mercier 

on  earth.  He  holds  it  as  not  only  possible  of 
attainment,  but  as  the  end  of  all  the  command- 
ments. It  consists  in  union  with  God  through 
charity,  and  bj'  charity,  he  explains,  he  means 
far  more  than  philanthropy.  Charity  is  love, 
love  of  what  we  ought  to  love,  the  result  of 
the  working  within  us  of  the  holy  spirit. 
Through  the  mystery  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  that 
is,  because  of  the  love  of  God  for  his  Son, 
and  of  the  Son  for  God,  and  of  their  unity  in 
the  Holy  Spirit,  which  is  the  eternal  expression 
of  their  united  love,  we  may  live  in  God.  For 
our  souls  can  be,  if  mc  do  not  close  the  door, 
the  dwelling-place  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  And 
always  the  clear  evidence  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
has  taken  up  its  abode  with  us  is  that  we  are 
living  a  life  of  charity,  of  love. 

Then  more  directly,  more  personally,  in 
Chapter  Four,  he  questions,  **.Yes,  or  no,  are 
Me  religious?"  Do  we  possess  this  virtue, 
charity,  which  seconded  by  those  of  faith  and 
hope,  leads  the  soul  to  its  goal?  Only  through 
our  love  of  others  can  we  save  ourselves. 

12() 


The  Good  Shepherd 


These  questions  he  follows  with  suggestions 
for  the  practical  living  program  of  the  servant 
of  God,  which  carry,  indeed,  their  admonition 
to  us  all.  The  duty  of  every  priest  is  to  safe- 
guard the  physical  and  moral,  as  well  as  the 
spiritual,  health  of  his  community.  Specific- 
ally, his  fight  against  alcoholism  and  prostitu- 
tion must  be  unrelenting,  for  these  strike  at 
the  hearth.  Hygiene  is  more  valuable  than 
medicine.  He  must  give  knowledge  of  it  and 
counsel  to  fathers  and  mothers  and  children, 
to  the  poor  and  to  the  rich.  The  shepherd  must 
be  ready  to  sacrifice  for  the  good  of  his  flock, 
his  effort,  his  time,  his  energy.  He  owes  them 
a  labor  of  intiative,  yet  it  must  be,  too,  jiatient 
and  obscure  and  persevering. 

And  cost  what  it  may,  in  the  midst  of  all  his 
work,  the  priest  must  reserve  time  for  study. 
He  must  make  economies ;  take  time.  "  In 
idling  after  breakfast,  in  the  lazy  reading  of 
papers,  in  long  dra^\^l-out  repasts,  in  empty 
chattering  and  aimless  visits;  who  knows,  in 
cards,  perhaps,  or  other  frivolous  parties;  in 

127 


Mercier 

sleep  prolonged  beyond  necessity ; —  how  much 
of  superfluity  there  is  Avhich  may  be  cut  do>Mi ! 
Has  not  the  war  already  taught  us  to  simplify 
our  life?  Let  us  simplify  it  more.  You  will 
find  yourselves  lighter,  more  alert.  ^Man  is 
bom  to  work,  as  the  bird  to  fly,  says  the  Scrip- 
ture. Have  always  nearby  some  piece  of  work, 
so  that  as  soon  as  you  have  a  minute,  you  can 
put  your  hand  on  it.  You  will  be  surprised  at 
what  five  minutes  totals  when  multix^lied  sev- 
eral times  each  year  by  365  or  366 ! " 

"  Be  generous  of  your  temporal  as  of  your 
spiritual  possessions.  Alwaj'^s  it  is  too  little 
to  give  what  one  has,  if  one  is  not  disi)osed  also 
to  give  what  one  is." 

From  this  pertinent  advice,  the  Cardinal  pur- 
suing farther  the  idea  of  Christian  j^erfec- 
tion,  turns  swiftly,  in  the  final  conversation, 
to  his  most  abstract  theme,  the  consideration 
of  the  supernatural  order  of  grace.  Here  his 
argument  rests  on  the  belief  that  there  is  a 
supernatural  state  in  our  present  life  which 
docs  not  differ  essentially  from   Ilia  I   of  the 

128 


The  Good  Shepherd 


future  life.  That  which  constitutes  it  is  the 
union  of  the  soul  with  God,  which  is  possible 
on  this  earth  through  the  sanctifying  grace  of 
the  holy  spirit  and  its  first  effect,  charity.  In 
this  union  resides  eternal  life,  that  is,  for  the 
Christian,  for  it  is  essentially  the  same  here  and 
in  eternity.  The  measure  of  charity  gives  the 
measure  of  glory.  Here  we  have  a  part;  in 
heaven,  the  union  bursts  with  full  glory.  The 
culminating  appeal  of  the  book  is  to  all  priests 
to  preach  this  sublime  mystery. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  other  work  of  Cardinal 
Mercier  which  so  intimately  reveals  the  faith 
and  purpose  within  him.  Most  lay  readers  will 
be  repelled  by  its  theology  and  technicality, 
but  for  the  one  who  is  not,  the  reading  will  be 
rewarding.  Certain  pages  are  rhapsodical, 
like  those  of  the  psalmist,  some  are  aglow  with 
the  zeal  of  the  churchman  as  he  expounds  the 
structure  and  end  of  the  one  divinely  ordained 
and  universal  church ;  some  are  admonitive,  like 
those  of  the  apostles;  others,  like  those  of  the 
saintly  Thomas  of  the  middle  ages,  present  the 

129 


Me 


rcicr 


principles  of  scholastic  philosophy  as  furnish- 
ing the  only  acceptable  and  complete  explana- 
tion of  life;  many  are  just  the  very  hmnan 
heart  to  heart  talks  of  one  friend  with  other, 
about  their  common  exi^eriences  and  hopes,  the 
communings  of  the  good  shepherd  with  his 
flock.  But  whatever  its  content,  on  each  page 
bums  the  clear  flame  of  love  for  man  and  God, 
and  of  complete  consecration  to  service  in  that 
love.  The  dogma  may  die ;  indeed,  part  of  it  is 
even  to-day  the  despair  of  many  a  modernist 
within  the  church  itself.  But  love  will  not  die. 
And  one  feels  that  the  Cardinal's  letters  must 
continue  to  be  a  spring  of  living  water  from 
which  succeeding  generations  of  priests  will 
drink  to  their  soul's  refrcslmient. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CARDINAL  VERSUS  THE  GOA^RNOR  GENERAL 

One  of  the  most  amazing,  and  to  the  general 
public  most  baffling,  phases  of  the  mentality 
of  the  German  during  the  war,  was  his  con- 
tinued attempt  to  justify  his  continued  ruthless 
behavior  by  argument.  *'  Why,"  asked  the  be- 
wildered witnessing  peoples,  "  does  he  stop 
to  reason  about  an  act,  which  he  performs  with 
unhesitating  brutality  whenever  it  suits  his 
purpose?" 

The  truth  is  that  the  Germans  did  not  like 
to  do  what  they  did  in  invading  Belgium ;  they 
were  alwaj'^s  ready  to,  but  they  preferred  to 
give  their  action  a  form,  they  tried  to  have  a 
reason.  So  with  curious  intent  they  paved 
their  devastating  path  with  argument. 

But  they  chose  a  particularly  bad  place  in 
which  to  argue  when  they  selected  INIalines. 
With  the  King  and  the  Government  gone,  they 

131 


Mercier 

recognized,  from  the  outset,  in  Cardinal  Mer- 
cier the  incarnation  of  the  national  spirit.  But 
here  was  one  of  the  keenest  brains  in  the  whole 
of  Europe,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  con- 
vincing voices.  Even  had  they  had  some  frac- 
tion of  riflht  on  their  side  thev  would  have 
found  it  imi)ossible  to  make  that  fraction  con- 
ceal from  the  brilliant  prelate  the  whole  great 
\\Tong;  and  since  they  had  none,  they  were 
doomed  from  the  start  to  defeat. 

It  is  practically  impossible  for  anyone  who 
has  not  lived  through  it,  to  objectify  the  Ger- 
man occupation  of  Belgium.  The  neutral  min- 
isters, the  American,  Dutch  and  Spanish 
representatives,  remained,  but  they  had  no 
governing  authority.  Their  labor  on  behalf  of 
the  oppressed  millions  was  prodigious,  their 
accomplishment  great;  but  they  were  not  a 
government,  and  as  neutrals  they  were  not 
supposed  to  be  the  voice  of  the  Belgian  people. 
The  Germans  permitted  them  to  remain  be- 
cause they  wished  to  reassure  the  people  as  to 
their  x>urpose,  hoping  alwaj's,  incredible  as  it 

132 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

may  seem  to  you,  to  win  them  to  their  side. 

The  great  Belgian  Comite  National,  the 
native  relief  committee,  came  nearer  to  being  a 
government.  They,  v^^ith  the  aid  of  the  Com- 
mission for  Relief  in  Belgimii,  kept  the  impris- 
oned 7,000,000  alive.  But  since  the  very  life 
of  the  population  depended  on  their  succor, 
and  since  the  agreements  under  which  they 
were  allowed  to  act  as  a  national  relief  com- 
mittee demanded  a  certain  enforced  discretion 
which  was  a  virtual  neutrality,  they  could  not 
with  any  freedom  express  the  attitude  of  the 
people.  The  men  w^ho  broke  this  observance, 
who  did  speak  out,  soon  found  themselves  in 
the  position  of  being  no  longer  able  to  speak 
to  anyone. 

There  was  only  one  organization  that  could 
become  the  voice  of  the  Belgian  people,  and 
that  was  the  church ;  for  while  the  Invader  did 
not  for  an  hour  exempt  it  from  his  rule,  yet 
he  dared  not  lay  hands  on  it  as  he  did  on  the 
other  members  of  the  national  body.  Further- 
more, the  Cardinal,  as  Primate  of  Belgium, 

133 


Mercier 

the  SheiDherd  of  liis  flock,  had,  from  the  begui' 
ning,  taken  the  position  that  the  enemy  must 
treat  with  him  on  questions  affecting  the  well- 
being  of  that  flock.  Directly  after  the  fall  of 
Antwerp,  in  October,  1915,  he  asked  Baron 
von  Huene,  Governor  of  Antwerp,  for  assur- 
ances that  civilians  would  not  be  deported,  and 
later  he  had  the  favorable  response  he  received 
from  von  Huene,  confirmed  by  Baron  von  der 
Goltz,  the  Ck)vcrnor-General  at  Brussels  pre- 
ceding Baron  von  Bissing.  In  a  subsequent 
letter  to  Governor-General  von  Bissing,  re- 
garding the  deportation  of  Belgian  workmen, 
he  refers  back  to  these  early  beginnings  of  the 
running  fight,  which  was  to  cover  four  years, 
as  follows: 

Malines,   19  October,  1916. 
Monsieur  The  Governor-General : 

The  day  after  the  capitulation  of  Antwerp,  the  terri- 
fied population  asked  themselves  what  would  become  of 
the  Belgians  of  the  age  to  bear  arms  and  of  those  who 
should  reach  that  age  before  the  end  of  the  occupation. 
The  supplications  of  fathers  and  mothers  of  families 
determined  me  to  question  the  Governor  of  Antwerp, 
Baron  von  Huene,  who  was  good  enougli  to  reassure  me, 

134 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

and  to  authorize  me  to  reassure,  in  his  name,  the 
agonized  parents.  In  the  meantime  rumors  had  reached 
Antwerp,  that  at  Liege,  Naraur,  and  Charleroi,  young 
men  had  been  arrested  and  carried  by  force  into  Ger- 
many. I  therefore  asked  the  Governor,  M.  von  Huene, 
to  be  good  enough  to  confirm  in  writing  the  guaranty 
which  he  had  already  given  me  verbally,  to  the  eJffect 
that  nothing  similar  would  occur  at  Antwerp. 

He  replied  immediately  that  the  rumors  regarding  the 
deportations  were  unfounded,  and  without  hesitating, 
sent  me  among  other  written  declarations,  the  following: 
Young  men  need  have  no  fear  that  they  will  be  taken 
to  Germany,  either  to  be  enrolled  in  the  army,  or  to  be 
employed  there  in  forced  labor. 

This  declaration,  written  and  signed,  was  publicly 
communicated  to  the  clergy  and  faithful  of  the  province 
of  Antwerp,  as  your  Excellency  can  ascertain  from  th<^ 
enclosed  document  (date  16th  October,  1914),  which 
was  read  aloud  in  all  the  churches  of  the  province. 

These  were  the  beginnings  of  the  great 
struggle  between  the  Primate  and  the  con- 
queror, and  they  show  the  early  recognition 
of  INIalines  as  a  seat  of  national  power.  The 
main  battle,  however,  did  not  open  until  1915, 
when  Baron  von  Bissing  was  Governor-Gen- 
eral, and  the  clever  and  unscrupulous  Baron 
von  der  Lancken,  political  head  of  the  occupy- 

135 


M 


ercter 


ing  powers.  These  men,  whose  arguments 
represented  the  combined  efforts  of  the  most 
conspicuous  intellects  associated  with  them, 
turned  their  biggest  guns  on  INIalines.  But 
they  suffered  from  two  handicaps:  they  were 
never  able  to  find  solid  ground  on  which  to 
mount  these  guns,  nor  could  they  match  in 
ammunition,  or  in  skill,  the  Cardinal's  defense. 
From  the  beginning,  he  took  the  stand  that  the 
Germans  in  invading  Belgium  had  violated  the 
princij^les  of  justice  and  honor,  and  that  there- 
fore everything  they  did  to  the  Belgian  people 
as  a  result  of  this  invasion,  was  unlawful.  This 
position  was  unassailable,  and  in  every  attempt 
to  storm  it  the  enemy  was  worsted; — as  the 
Cardinal  was  always  certain  he  would  be.  He 
got  a  kind  of  compensation  for  his  burden  of 
labor  and  sorrow  in  his  delight  in  answering  the 
German's  specious  reasoning,  in  tearing  from 
it  the  veils  of  hypocrisy  and  in  revealing  its 
subterfuges.  Last  Christmas  at  INIalines  when 
he  told  me  of  an  approaching  edition  of  the 
correspondence  of  the  German  authorities  with 

136 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

himself  and  his  letters  to  them,  he  said  with  a 
chuckle:  "And  I  believe  they  will  furnish 
reading  assez  amusant!" 

Of  this  historic  volume  of  discussion  between 
Brussels  and  Malines,  by  far  the  most  import- 
ant part  passed  directly  between  Cardinal 
Mercier  and  Governor-General  von  Bissing, 
during  the  period  from  the  first  day  of  1915 
until  the  death  of  the  Governor-General  in  the 
Spring  of  1917.  And  of  the  letters  covering 
this  period  there  are  two  outstanding  groups: 
the  "Patriotism  and  Endurance"  series,  and 
the  "  Deportation  "  series. 

One  wishes  history  might  have  had  a  photo- 
graph of  these  opponents  side  by  side, —  of  the 
old  man  of  Germany  and  the  man  of  God  — 
a  visible  expression  of  the  two  forces  whose 
conflict  was  shaking  the  pillars  of  the  world. 
We  have  no  such  photograph,  but  we  have 
something  better;  for  in  two  of  his  inimitable 
cameoes  ^Ir.  \^Tiitlock's  artist's  hand  has 
chiseled  them  for  all  time.  In  his  story  of  the 
Belgian  occupation  he  records  this  impression 

137 


Mercicr 

of  the  German  Governor:  "General  Baron 
von  Bissing,  was  a  man  over  70  years  of  age, 
old  and  thin,  with  thick  graying  black  hair 
brushed  straight  back  from  his  forehead  and 
plastered  do^^'n  as  with  water  or  with  oil  on  the 
curiously  shaped  head  that  was  so  straight  and 
sheer  behind.  His  face  was  hard  and  its 
leathern  skin,  wrinkled  and  old  and  weather- 
beaten,  was  remorselessly  shaved  as  to  chin 
and  throat  and  high  lean  cheeks,  leaving  the 
thick  heavy  mustaches  of  a  Prussian  Reiter 
to  hide  somewhat  the  thin  lips  of  the  stern 
mouth  and  then  flow  on,  growing  across  his 
cheeks  to  bristle  up  fiercely  by  his  ears.  His 
brow  was  high  and  the  lean  face  tapered  to  the 
wedge  of  a  very  firm  jaw;  the  visage  of  an  old 
Prussian  dragoon  of  the  school  and  mentality 
of  Bismarck.  But  out  of  it  there  gleamed  a 
pair  of  piercing  dark  eyes  that  seemed  black 
until  one  saw  that  they  were  blue;  tlicy  were 
keen,  shrewd  eyes,  not  wholly  unkind.  He 
wore,  ceremoniously,  a  great  heavy  sabre  tliat 
clanked  against  his  thin  legs  as  he  walked  stiffly 

138 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

into  the  salon,  until,  as  by  an  habitual  gesture, 
he  grasped  its  hilt  in  his  aged  hand." 

Beside  this  we  may  place  his  picture  of  the 
Cardinal:  "He  entered,  advanced,  tall  and 
strong  and  spare,  in  the  long  black  soutane 
with  the  red  piping  and  the  sash,  not  with  the 
stately,  measured  pace  that  one  associates  with 
the  red  hat,  but  Avith  long,  quick  strides,  kick- 
ing out  with  impatience  the  skirt  of  his  soutane 
before  him  as  he  walked,  as  though  it  impeded 
his  movements.  He  was  impressive  in  his 
height  and  he  bent  slightly  forward  with  an 
effect  of  swooping  on,  like  an  avenging  justice. 
But  his  hand  was  outheld,  and  in  his  mobile 
countenance  and  kindly  eyes  there  was  a  smile, 
as  of  sweetness  and  light,  that  illumined  the 
long,  lean  visage.  .  .  .  His  hands  were  large 
and  powerful  and  of  the  weathered  aspect  of 
his  face.  It  was  a  countenance  full  of  serene 
light,  with  little  of  the  typically  ecclesiastical 
about  it :  a  high  brow,  a  long  nose,  lean  cheeks, 
strong  jaw,  and  a  large,  mobile  mouth,  humor- 
ous and  sensitive  —  the  mouth  of  the  orator, 

139 


Mercier 

but  thin  lips  that  could  close  in  impenetrable 
silence.  The  eyes  were  blue  and  they  twinkled 
with  a  lively  intelligence  and  kindly  hunior 
.  .  .  had  it  not  been  for  those  touches  of  red 
in  his  black  garb,  he  would  have  recalled  some 
tall,  gaunt,  simple,  affectionate  Irish  priest, 
"whose  life  was  passed  in  obscure  toil  among  the 
poor." 

So  they  appeared  to  the  man  who  had  the 
extraordinary  experience  of  being  the  neutral 
arbitrator  on  the  field  where  their  long  battle 
was  waged. 

It  may  be  added  without  indiscretion  that 
^Ir.  Whitlock,  although  of  perfectly  correct 
official  behavior  as  "neutral  arbitrator"  was 
in  the  eyes  of  all  Belgians  their  beloved  sj^m- 
pathizer,  their  trusted  guide,  counsellor  and 
friend,  their  tower  of  strength  in  a  land  where 
all  the  towers  of  their  own  building  were  in 
ruins.  All  Belgians  came  to  him  with  their 
personal  troubles:  all  went  out  from  his  doors 
comforted  and  with  new  confidence.  All  hap- 
penings in  Belgium  were  in  his  sight,   and 

140 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

many  of  these  happenings  included  his  par- 
ticipation. In  his  book  he  has  told  the  story  of 
Belgium's  trial  by  fire  once  and  for  all  time. 
The  *'  Patriotism  and  Endurance  "  episode 
opened  on  New  Year's  Day,  1915,  with  the 
reading  of  the  pastoral  letter  in  the  churches. 
The  effect,  as  we  have  seen,  was  tremendous, 
and  all  efforts  of  the  Germans  to  stem  the  tide 
of  feeling  were  futile.  I  have  already  referred 
to  the  arrest  of  the  printer,  M.  Dessain,  at  two 
o'clock  on  the  morning  following  the  first  read- 
ing, and  to  the  invasion  of  the  Cardinal's  pal- 
ace at  six,  and  also  to  the  hysterical  activity 
of  that  and  subsequent  days,  during  which  offi- 
cers rushed  about  the  churches,  demanding 
copies  of  the  letter,  seizing  them  by  force,  or 
arresting  the  priests  who  refused  to  deliver 
them.  In  all  cases  they  prohibited  any  fur- 
ther readings  —  the  length  of  the  pastorals 
usually  demanded  several  consecutive  services 
for  a  complete  reading.  The  Brussels  censor- 
ship office  was  visibly  the  center  of  the  enemy 
excitement,  and  there  leaked  out  from  it,  to 

141 


Mercier 

the  delight  of  the  people,  reports  of  the  great 
anger  of  the  Governor-General.  Evidently 
the  reply  to  the  document  he  had  "WTitten  De- 
cember 31,  1914,  and  delivered  to  His  Emi- 
nence at  six  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  Janu- 
ary second,  had  not  softened  his  anger. 

In  that  document  he  had  stressed  three 
points.  First,  he  highly  disapproved  of  a  let- 
ter His  Eminence  had  asked  him  to  transmit 
to  Cardinal  llartmann  of  Cologne,  and  he  re- 
turned it  to  ]Malincs.  This  letter,  he  said, 
prov^ed  that  he  had  been  deceived  when  he 
believed  there  could  be  satis factor}'^  relations 
between  His  Eminence  and  himself.  It  had 
been,  indeed,  definitely  with  the  intent  of 
disabusing  the  Governor-General's  mind  of 
any  such  hope  that  the  Cardinal  had  sent 
him  a  letter  addressed  to  Cardinal  von 
Hartmann,  in  which  he  unequivocally  out- 
lined his  position.  Because  of  that  which  this 
letter  revealed,  the  Governor-General  an- 
nounced, he  withdrew  the  favor  he  had  accorded 
the  Cardinal   in  allowing  him   to  enter  into 

142 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

relations  with  the  other  bishops  of  Belgium. 

In  the  second  place,  since  it  fomented  diffi- 
culties and  rebellion,  he  strictly  forbade  any 
further  reading  or  dissemination  of  the  Christ- 
mas pastoral.  And  in  the  third  place,  he  de- 
manded to  know  how  His  Eminence  had  been 
able  to  connect  with  the  King  of  England  and 
to  suggest  a  day  of  prayer  for  the  Allies. 

The  Cardinal,  as  we  know,  spent  the  entire 
day  in  replying  to  the  voluminous  German 
communication.  He  dismissed  the  announce- 
ment of  the  withdrawal  of  the  permission  to 
visit  his  bishops  outside  his  diocese,  by  saying 
that  he  had  not  availed  himself  of  it.  He  re- 
fused to  withdraw  his  order  for  the  reading 
of  the  pastoral  letter,  or  to  retract  any  single 
statement  in  it.  And  he  met  the  demand  that 
he  explain  this  means  of  connecting  with  the 
King  of  England  with  the  statement  that  he 
presumed  that  his  i)rivate  life  could  not  be  con- 
trolled by  a  censorship  of  any  kind  whatever, 
and  that  he  would  later  send  the  Governor- 
General  a  letter  of  Cardinal  Bourne  of  Eng- 

143 


Mercier 

land,  of  which  he  had  several  copies,  in  which 
the  English  prelate  announced  the  decision  of 
the  King  to  prescribe  a  day  of  prayer. 

Von  Bissing  was  furious  — Von  der  Lancken 
went  to  ^lalines  the  following  day,  but  ob- 
tained nothing.  And  each  day  they  received 
further  news  of  the  sensation  the  letter  was 
making  abroad.  On  January  10th,  they 
l^rinted  an  article  in  one  of  the  controlled 
Brussels  papers  stating  that  outside  press  re- 
ports were  inexact,  and  asserting  that  they  had 
not  in  any  way  interfered  with  the  liberty  of 
the  Cardinal  in  the  exercise  of  his  ecclesiastical 
functions!  At  the  same  time  the  Governor- 
General  sent  to  priests  of  the  diocese  of  ]\Ia- 
lines  a  notice  to  the  effect  that  the  Cardinal 
Iiad  declared  to  the  Governor-General  that  he 
had  no  intention  of  exciting  the  population  by 
his  letter,  that  he  had  particularly  insisted  on 
the  necessity  of  their  obedience  to  the  occupy- 
ing powers,  and  that  he  did  not  require  of  his 
clergy  the  continued  reading  of  the  remainder 
of  the  letter,  nor  that  it  be  distributed. 

144 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

The  Doyon  of  Ste.  Gudulc,  Mgr.  Evrard, 
went  at  once  to  Malines,  and  on  the  9th  wrote 
a  letter  to  his  cures,  which  followed  on  the  heels 
of  the  Governor-General's  note,  in  which  he 
quoted  the  Cardinal's  explicit  denial  of  the 
German  statement.  "  Neither  in  speaking  or 
writing  have  I  withdrawn  any  of  my  former 
instructions,  and  I  protest  against  the  violence 
done  to  the  liberty  of  my  pastoral  ministry." 
The  churches  were  crowded  to  overflowing; 
every^vhere  the  reading  of  the  pastoral  con- 
tinued. On  the  11th  the  Cardinal  addressed 
a  letter  in  Latin  to  the  members  of  his  own 
diocese  in  which  he  enumerated  the  enemy  acts 
interfering  with  his  office  as  bishop.  And  so 
the  battle  progressed,  with  no  question  in  the 
minds  of  those  inside  or  outside  the  occupied 
territory  as  to  where  the  victory  rested.  But 
though  morally  and  actually  defeated,  the  Ger- 
mans characteristically  kept  up  the  show  of 
what  they  tried  to  make  ai^jDear  a  winning 
fight,  continuing  their  arrests  of  those  caught 
selling  or  distributing  the  letter,   and  their 

145 


Mercier 

persecution  of  the  clergy  who  proniiilgated  it. 

And  the  Cardinal  valiantly  continued  to 
^vTite  letters  to  his  flock.  The  Lenten  epistle 
on  the  Papacy  was  followed  on  the  25th  of 
April  by  "Devotion  to  Christ,"  on  the  21st 
of  September  by  "A  Call  to  Prayer,"  and  on 
the  15th  of  October  by  "All  Saints  Day,"  in 
which,  with  his  customary  brilliancy,  he  exam- 
ined the  problems  of  evil  and  suffering.  It 
was  on  November  23rd,  just  about  a  month 
after  the  appearance  of  this  letter,  that  the 
Governor-General  went  himself  to  INIalines  for 
a  personal  interview  with  the  Primate,  during 
which  he  naively  asked  why  His  Eminence 
complained,  when  his  liberty  was  complete* 
Had  he  not  been  given  a  permit  to  circulate 
freely  in  his  automobile? 

"  Have  I  entire  freedom  of  action,"  the 
Cardinal  rej^licd,  "  when  I  am  under  the  in- 
cessant surveillance  of  spies?  In  iSIalincs  the 
least  of  my  gestures  is  spied  upon.  Tlie  most 
insignificant  of  my  words  is  noted  down.  If 
I  go  to  Brussels,  I  am  followed  everywhere. 

14G 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

If  I  decide  to  go  even  for  a  few  hours  to  my 
country  place  at  Lhermite,  I  scarcely  reach 
the  village  before  I  see  myself  followed  by 
spies.  Sometimes  soldiers  on  horseback  ac- 
company me  to  my  door,  and  stop  near  it  to 
question  those  who  come  to  see  me,  and  those 
who  leave  my  house.  .  .  .  Do  you  call  this 
being  at  liberty? "  The  Governor-General  did 
not  score  by  his  personal  visit. 

After  a  year  of  futile  bombardment  of  Ma- 
lines,  what  an  extraordinary  circumstance  was 
this  visit!  During  the  year,  each  successive 
stroke  of  His  Eminence  had  but  thrown  into 
sharper  relief  the  clear,  true  lines  of  his  con- 
viction, and  yet  the  old  man  of  Germany  clung 
tenaciously  to  the  belief  that  sooner  or  later 
he  could  talk  him  into  submission.  There  was 
no  such  talking  going  on  at  Charleville,  at  the 
military  headquarters  of  the  enemy  govern- 
ment, no  such  continued  attemj)t  to  produce 
proof  for  the  rightness  of  the  A\Tong;  it  was 
distinctly  General  von  Bissing,  head  of  the 
civil  forces,  who  was  responsible  for  the  argu- 

147 


Mercier 

ing  policy.  One  of  those  Germans  who  never 
questioned  the  doctrine  of  the  right  of  the 
strongest  to  control,  he  was  quite  genuinely 
convinced  that  his  country  had  a  right,  per- 
haps a  holy  duty,  to  take  over  Belgium,  and 
he  was  positive  he  could  prove  this  in  the  end. 
And  toward  the  end,  that  is,  the  end  of  his  o^vn 
life,  after  over  two  years  of  his  reasoning  had 
not  yet  convinced  the  blind  Belgians,  he  was 
almost  pathetic  in  his  attitude  of  baffled  in- 
comprehension. I  have  often  heard  it  said 
that  the  Belgians  killed  von  Bissing.  At  least 
it  is  probable  that  by  their  adamantine  refusal 
to  be  argued  or  cajoled  or  lured  into  accepting 
him  as  the  benevolent  patriarch  arrived  to  rule 
over  them  only  for  their  good,  they  did  hasten 
his  death. 

On  tlic  day  following  the  visit  to  Malines 
the  Cardinal  began  the  writing  of  one  of  the 
most  sensational  papers  that  appeared  during 
the  entire  war  —  the  "Appeal  to  Truth,"  a 
strongly  documented  letter  from  the  Bishops 
of  Belgium  to  the  Cardinals  and  Bishops  of 

148 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

Germany,  Bavaria,  and  Austria-Hungary,  in 
which  after  a  masterly  placing  of  guilt  where 
it  belonged,  he  appealed  to  them,  as  he  had 
three  times  previously  appealed  to  the  occupy- 
ing authorities,  to  obtain  from  their  govern- 
ment a  court  of  Arbitration  for  Belgium. 

About  this  time,  the  question  of  permission 
for  the  Primate's  journey  to  Rome  was 
brought  up,  and  remained  the  storm  center  of 
the  Malines-Brussels  relations  until  the  de- 
parture of  His  Eminence,  on  January  16, 
1916,  for  the  Eternal  City. 

Simultaneously  with  his  departure  copies  of 
the  letter  to  the  clergy  of  the  Central  Powers 
began  appearing  clandestinely  in  Brussels. 
The  Germans  were  now  beyond  trying  to  con- 
ceal their  anger.  Von  Bissing  wrote  swiftly 
an  uncontrolled  note  to  the  Bishop  of  Tournai, 
in  which,  among  other  things,  he  asserted  that 
in  any  question  of  truth,  there  could  be  no 
hesitation  between  accepting  the  word  of  a  Ger- 
man general  as  against  the  oath  of  a  Belgian 
bishop,  and  that  if  now  at  last  the  Pope  did 

149 


M 


crcicr 


not  intervene,  the  Germans  would  surely  act! 
The  Governor-General  undoubtcdl}"  hoped 
that  the  Primate  would  return  from  Rome  a 
chastened  spirit.  He  was  to  suffer  another 
disillusionment.  Cardinal  INIercier  came  back, 
and  on  ^Nlarch  12,  WTote  the  clearly  un- 
chastened  lenten  Pastoral,  "  !My  Return  from 
Rome."  To  this  the  stubborn  old  man  not 
only  replied  in  a  letter  to  His  Eminence,  but 
he  also  printed  his  reply  in  one  of  the  con- 
trolled Brussels  papers  —  again  to  the  delight 
of  the  keen-witted  populace,  who,  in  these  days 
of  somber  inquietude  had  so  little  to  cheer 
them.  He  said,  in  part,  "To  safeguard  the 
interests  of  the  Catholic  church,  the  Pope  as- 
sured me  formalh''  and  witli  frequent  repeti- 
tions, that  on  your  return  from  Rome  your 
Eminence  would  assume  an  attitude  full  of 
moderation.  As  a  result  I  expected  that  your 
Eminence  would  abstain  from  manifestations 
which  throw  disarray  into  the  spirit  of  the  Bel- 
gian people,  so  easily  excitable.  With  this 
expectation,   I   waited   to   discuss   with   your 

1.50 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

Eminence  the  incidents  provoked  by  your 
journey  and  notably  the  letter  of  the  Belgian 
bishops  and  the  political  abuse  which  you  made 
of  the  safe  conduct  that  the  Holy  Father  so- 
licited for  you  to  permit  you  to  go  to  Rome 
on  a  purely  ecclesiastical  mission. 

"  Your  pastoral  letter  permits  me  to  say  that 
not  only  have  you  not  lived  up  to  the  agree- 
ments that  the  High  Personage  was  in  a  bet- 
ter position  to  give,  but  furthermore  you  have 
conducted  yourself  in  such  a  manner  that  your 
relations  with  the  occupying  powers  are  now 
more  strained  than  ever.    .    .    . 

"I  cannot  allow  that  your  Eminence, 
a  propos  of  the  end  of  the  war,  shall  attempt 
to  rouse  unfounded  hopes,  which  are  contrary 
to  facts." 

Thus  1916  got  under  way. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  brilliant  ser- 
mon delivered  in  Sainte  Gudule,  and  the  ac- 
companying manifestation  on  July  21.  The 
Governor-General  had  had  good  reason  to 
announce  that  the  relations  between  Malines 

151 


Mercier 

and  the  occupying  power  were  more  strained 
than  ever! 

But  if  the  Cardinal  had  felt  it  his  duty  to 
speak  out  before,  he  felt  it  a  himdred  fold  his 
duty  to  speak  in  the  fall  of  1916.  For  then 
the  Invader  was  initiating  the  most  cruel  of 
all  the  infamous  occupation  policies, —  the  de- 
j^ortation  of  Belgians  into  Germany  for  forced 
labor  in  factories  or  for  work  behind  the  lines. 
And  the  brave  millions  who  had  so  unflinch- 
ingly met  himger  and  cold,  and  devastation 
and  death,  were  sunk  in  a  pit  of  despair.  After 
all  they  had  endured,  the  yoke  of  human 
slavery  in  its  most  humiliating  form  was  being 
fastened  on  their  necks.  And  to  add  to  the 
hideousness  of  his  latest  thrust  at  the  soul  of 
the  nation,  the  perpetrator  sought  again  to  in- 
vest it  with  a  show  of  legality  in  trying  to 
force  each  victim  to  sign  a  *'  voluntary  employ- 
ment "  contract.  Those  of  us  who  have  seen 
the  men  torn  from  tlicir  wives  and  cliildrcn  and 
started  along  the  tracks  in  open  cattle  cars,  in 
bitter  weather,  toward  the  unseen  horror,  and 

152 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

heard  the  immortal  cry,  "We  will  not  sign," 
echoing  back  to  us  across  the  desolated  land, 
and  who  later  saw  the  return  of  groups  of  these 
victims,  against  whom  even  the  slave-driver 
felt  it  useless  to  struggle  further,  whose  legs 
were  blackened  by  snow  torture  or  whose 
bodies  were  emaciated  and  broken  by  the 
agony  of  hunger  and  disease  —  for  those  of  us 
who  saw  any  of  this,  it  is  still  impossible  to 
look  back  without  a  sense  of  physical,  as  well 
as  spiritual,  illness. 

Yes,  now  as  never  before  the  flock  had  need 
of  its  shepherd.  Their  faith  in  him  was  not 
betrayed;  on  October  19,  Baron  von  Bissing 
received  the  first  letter  of  protest  from  Ma- 
lines.    This  was  its  concluding  paragraph: 

"  In  the  name  of  the  Belgian  citizen's  right 
to  choose  his  residence  and  work;  in  the  name 
of  the  inviolability  of  family  life ;  in  the  name 
of  those  moral  interests  so  gravely  compro- 
mised by  the  practise  of  deportation;  in  the 
name,  too,  of  the  undertaking  given  by  the 
Governor  of  the  province  of  Antwerp  and  by 

153 


Mercier 

the  Governor-General  himself,  who  directly 
represent  the  highest  authority  in  the  German 
Empire,  I  respectfully  beg  you  to  withdraw 
the  orders  regarding  forced  labor  and  deporta- 
tion issued  to  the  working-men  of  Belgium, 
and  also  to  send  back  to  their  homes  such  of 
them  as  have  already  been  carried  away  in  this 
manner.  Your  Excellency  will  easily  under- 
stand how  heavy  would  be  the  weight  of  my 
responsibility  towards  the  families  of  these 
men,  if  the  faith  they  placed  in  you,  on  account 
of  my  intervention  and  my  urgent  representa- 
tions to  them,  were  now  so  lamentabl}'^  be- 
trayed." On  the  same  day  the  Cardinal  wTote 
to  Baron  von  der  Lancken,  General  von  Bis- 
fiing's  chief  adviser;  "  I  earnestly  hope  that 
you  will  use  all  your  influence  with  those  in 
authority  to  prevent  such  an  outrage. 

"  Do  not  speak,  I  entreat  you,  of  the  need 
of  safeguarding  public  order,  or  of  the  neces- 
sity of  lightening  the  ])urdcn  upon  public 
cliarity.  Spare  us  such  ])ittcr  irony.  You 
know  well  that  public  order  is  in  no  way  thrcat- 

154 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

ened  and  that  our  moral  and  civilian  influences 
would  be  placed  spontaneously  at  your  dis- 
posal, if  there  were  any  such  danger.  The  un- 
employed are  not  a  charge  upon  official  relief ; 
and  no  help  comes  to  them  from  any  financial 
arrangements  which  you  may  make." 

A  paragraph  from  the  Governor-General's 
reply  reveals  the  odious  evasion  characterizing 
the  whole. 

"  In  his  letter  Your  Eminence  invokes  the 
high  ideal  of  familial  virtues.  I  may  be  per- 
mitted to  reply  that,  like  your  Eminence,  I 
place  this  ideal  very  high,  but  for  that  very 
reason  I  must  say  also  that  the  working  classes 
run  the  very  great  risk  of  completely  losing  all 
ideals  if  the  present  state  of  affairs  which  can 
but  become  worse,  continues.  For  laziness  is 
the  family's  worst  enemJ^  Surely  the  man  who 
works  far  away  from  his  folk  —  a  state  of 
affairs  which  has  existed  always  for  the  Bel- 
gian workman  —  contributes  much  more  to  the 
welfare  of  his  family  than  by  remaining  at 
home  in  idleness.    Workmen  accepting  work  in 

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Germany  are  permitted  to  remain  in  relation 
with  their  families.  At  regular  intervals  they 
will  be  allowed  leaves  to  return  to  their 
comitrj\  They  may  take  their  families  to  Ger- 
many, where  they  will  find  priests  acquainted 
with  the  languages." 

There  was  no  more  honesty  in  the  whole  than 
in  this  part.  In  beginnmg  and  closing  von 
Bissing  placed  the  blame  for  the  economic  and 
social  necessity  of  the  deportation  sj'^stem  at 
the  door  of  England  —  it  is  her  blockade  that 
makes  it  necessarj''  —  if  Belgium  suffers,  Eng- 
land is  to  blame,  not  Germany. 

Knowing  that  fear  was  eating  every  day 
deeper  into  the  heart  of  a  desperate  people. 
Cardinal  jNIercier  determined  to  break  through 
the  prison  wall  and  reach  the  conscience  of 
the  world  outside.  On  November  7th,  1910,  he 
wrote  "xVn  Appeal  to  Neutrals,"  in  which  he 
listed  examples  of  the  outrages  perpetrated, 
and  tore  to  shreds  the  sophism  of  the  German 
justification  of  them,  concluding  with  impas- 
sioned appeal: 

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Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

"  We,  the  shepherds  of  those  sheep  who  are 
torn  from  us  by  brutal  force,  full  of  anguish! 
at  the  thought  of  the  moral  and  religious  isola- 
tion in  which  they  are  about  to  languish,  im- 
potent witnesses  of  the  grief  and  terror  in  the 
numerous  homes  shattered  or  threatened,  turn 
to  souls  believing  or  unbelieving,  in  Allied 
countries,  in  neutral  countries,  and  even  in 
enemy  countries,  who  have  respect  for  human 
dignity." 

Those  dead  days  of  November  —  shall  I 
ever  be  able  to  forget  them?  Each  week  the 
shoulders  of  the  little  groups  of  Belgians  in 
their  worn  black  coats,  meeting  in  the  late 
afternoon  under  the  leafless  trees  on  the  boule- 
vard, to  exchange  words  of  greeting  or  com- 
fort, seemed  to  droop  a  little  lower.  Though 
the  unquenchable  fire  still  burned  in  the  eye, 
the  body  simply  could  not  hold  itself  upright 
under  its  burden  of  misery.  And  the  angle  of 
the  enemy  silhouette  as  he  passed  these  little 
groups  seemed,  in  contrast,  increasingly  erect 
and  arrogant.    Poor,  poor  people,  all  together 

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we  were  so  powerless  to  help  them ;  ^Mr.  Whit- 
lock  was  positively  ill;  our  C.  R.  B.  men  were 
all  but  breaking  under  the  strain.  Mr.  Tuck, 
stationed  at  jNIons,  where  some  of  the  worst 
outrages  occurred,  left  everything,  and  rushed 
out  and  across  Holland  and  the  Channel  to 
England  to  join  the  British  army  and  fight  his 
way  back  to  Mons  to  put  an  end  in  the  one  way 
possible  to  tlic  horrors  he  had  witnessed.  And 
it  was  all  that  ^Ir.  Hoover  and  the  Director  in 
Brussels  could  do  to  keep  others  from  follow- 
ing Tuck. 

On  November  10,  the  Cardinal  addressed  his 
second  letter  to  Baron  von  Bissing  in  which 
he  again  sliowed  Germany's  violation  of  re- 
corded promises,  and  asking  if  it  were  just  to 
avenge  a  grievance  against  Kngland  on  an  in- 
offensive and  disarmed  people,  thrust  forward 
boldly  the  naked  fact  behind  the  whole  mon- 
strous procedure:  "Each  Belgian  workman 
will  li])erate  a  German  workman,  who  will  add 
one  more  soldier  to  the  German  army." 

In  t\vo  weeks,  came  the  second  reply  of  the 
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Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

Governor-General,  which  did  little  more,  how- 
ever, than  repeat  the  substance  of  his  first. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  month  when  the 
Cardinal  preached  in  Sainte  Gudule  to  those 
under  the  shadow  of  slavery,  from  the  text: 
"  Ye  shall  loiow  the  truth  and  the  truth  shall 
make  you  free,"  he  said: 

"  The  last  four  or  five  weeks  have  been  per- 
haps the  most  sorrowful  in  all  my  life.  .  .  . 
For  three  daj'^s  —  from  morning  till  evening, 
I  went  about  those  neighborhoods  from  which 
the  first  laborers  and  artisans  in  my  diocese 
were  forcibly  taken  away  into  a  land  of  exile. 
I  visited  more  than  a  hundred  half-empty 
homes.  The  husband  was  away,  the  children 
were  orphans,  the  sisters  were  sitting  there 
with  dull  eyes  and  listless  arms,  beside  their 
sewing-machines,  and  a  dreary  silence  reigned 
in  all  these  cottages.  One  would  have  said  a 
corpse  was  in  the  house.   .    .    . 

"  Faithful  to  the  salutation  that  is  familiar 
to  bishops:  'Pax  vohis,  peace  be  with  you,'  I 
bring  you  a  message  of  peace. 

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'*  But  no  x^eace  is  possible  witiiout  order,  and 
order  rests  upon  justice  and  charity. 

"  We  desire  order,  and  for  that  reason  we 
asked  you,  from  the  first,  to  oppose  no  active 
resistance  to  the  occupying  power,  and  to  sub- 
mit, without  rebellion,  to  regulations  that  do 
not  violate  either  your  conscience  as  Christians 
or  your  dignity  as  patriots.  But  the  occupying 
power  too  must  desire  order  —  that  is  to  say, 
the  respect  of  our  own.  rights  and  of  the  en- 
gagements it  has  given.  In  civilized  coun- 
tries man  has  a  right  to  liberty  in  the  choice  of 
work.  He  has  a  right  to  his  home.  He  has 
the  right  to  reserve  his  services  for  his  own 
country. 

"Any  regulations  that  in  any  way  violate 
these  rights  arc  not  binding  on  the  con- 
science. 

"  This  I  say  to  you,  my  Brethren,  without 
hatred  or  thoughts  of  retaliation.  I  should  be 
unworthy  of  this  episcopal  ring,  placed  by  the 
church  upon  my  finger,  unworthy  of  this  cross 
placed  by  her  upon  my  heart,  were  I  to  hcsi- 

IGO 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

tate,  in  obedience  to  any  human  passion,  to 
proclaim  that  right  violated  is  none  the  less 
right,  and  that  injustice  supported  by  force  is 
still  injustice.    .    .    . 

*'  Courage,  then,  my  Brethren,  be  respectful 
to  the  teaching  of  Christ.  Be  faithful  to  your 
Belgian  land." 

Only  one  day  remained  of  that  dread  No- 
vember, and  the  Cardinal  wearily,  but  bravely 
still,  made  a  final  statement  to  the  man  who 
will  be  forever  remembered  as  the  director  of 
this  most  infamous  chapter  in  the  war.  He 
had  but  a  few  months  more  to  live  —  one  won- 
ders whether,  if  he  could  have  seen  the  grave 
so  near,  he  might  at  the  same  time  have  felt 
a  clearing  wind  blow  across  his  clouded  brain 
—  probably  not. 

"The  letter,"  the  Cardinal  wrote,  "which 
Your  Excellency  did  me  the  honor  to  write  to 
me,  is  a  gTcat  disappointment  to  me."  He 
then  quotes  instances  to  prove  that  in  the  con- 
tinued recruiting,  the  clergy  were  brutally 
thrust  aside,  and  burgomasters  and  to\\Ti  coun- 

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cillors  reduced  to  silence.  In  a  certain  com- 
mune two  families  found  themselves  deprived 
each  of  four  sons  at  once.  And  of  the  ninety- 
four  deportees  from  this  commune  only  two 
were  unemployed. 

His  last  paragTaph  forms  a  fitting  close  to 
this  amazing  and  tragic,  perfidious  and  noble 
debate,  surely  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
in  all  the  range  of  history. 

"At  the  end  of  your  letter.  Your  Excellency, 
you  remind  me  that  men  belonging  to  liberal 
professions  are  not  interfered  with.  If  only 
the  unemployed  were  removed  I  could  under- 
stand this  exception.  But  if  all  able-bodied 
men  continue  to  be  enrolled  indiscriminately, 
the  exception  is  unjustifiable.  It  would  be 
iniquitous  to  make  the  whole  weight  of  the 
deportations  fall  upon  the  working  classes. 
The  middle  classes  must  have  their  part  in  the 
sacrifice,  however  cruel  it  may  be  and  just  be- 
cause it  is  cruel,  that  the  occupying  power  im- 
poses on  the  nation.  A  great  many  members 
of  my  clcrg}^  liave  asked  me  to  l)cg  for  them  a 

1G2 


Cardinal  versus  Governor  General 

place  in  the  van  of  the  persecuted.    I  register 
this  offer  and  submit  it  to  you  with  pride. 

"  I  would  wish  to  believe  that  the  Authorities 
of  the  Empire  have  not  said  their  last  word. 
•They  will  think  of  our  undeserved  sorrows,  of 
the  reprobation  of  the  civilized  world,  of  the 
judgment  of  history,  and  of  the  chastisement 
of  God." 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  CARDINAL  AT  HOME 

I  had  my  last  audience  at  jMalines  on  the 
first  Christmas  morning  after  the  Armistice. 
I  started  from  Brussels  on  Christmas  eve, 
to  spend  it  with  the  two  charming  Dessain 
sisters,  whose  brother,  a  distinguished  gentle- 
man and  scholar,  is  one  of  the  Cardinal's 
closest  friends.  -A  soft  snow  was  falling 
on  this  first  Christmas  after  the  Liberation, 
as  if  seeking  gently  to  cover  the  scars  of 
the  bitter  years,  and  the  hour's  ride  from 
the  capital,  northward  through  the  white- 
gleaming  fairy-like  dusk,  seemed  all  too  short. 
But  it  was  sweet,  too,  to  slip  inside  the  hos- 
pitable ])rick  house  ^^'ith  its  spacious  inner 
court,  and  to  ])e  greeted  again  with  the  en- 
dearing friendliness  that  touched  us  so  deeply 
throughout  the  war  years.  Wc  sat  do\vn  to  a 
frugal  supper,  prepared  by  faithful  old  INId- 
lanie,  who  had  herself  held  the  house  against 

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The  Cardinal  at  Home 


the  first  invading  soldiers.  Poor  Melanie  had 
had  worse  troubles  than  those  of  defending  her 
kitchen  against  the  Germans.  For  one  day, 
not  long  after  thej'^  had  occupied  Malines,  she 
set  out  for  the  customary  morning  mass,  and 
reached  the  church  only  to  find  the  nave 
crowded  with  kneeling  figures  in  the  hated 
enemy  gray.  And  devout  though  she  was,  she 
could  not  force  herself  to  enter,  but  went  home 
sadly  shaking  her  puzzled  old  head.  After 
that  Melanie  spent  her  sympathies  not  on  her 
people,  but  on  "  le  pauvre  bon  Dieu,"  for  was 
it  not  clear  that  the  poor  good  God  must  be 
having  by  far  the  hardest  time  of  all? 

After  supper  we  sat  in  the  library  a  few 
minutes,  while  M.  Dessain  recalled  the  scene 
enacted  there  between  two  and  four  o'clock  on 
that  January  morning  in  1915,  when  the  five 
Germans  arrived  to  arrest  him  on  the  charge 
of  having  printed  the  Cardinal's  first  letter. 
As  we  talked,  the  Abbe  Van  Nuffel,  chapel 
music-master  of  the  church  "  Beyond  the 
Dyle,"  the  Primate's  church,  came  in  out  of 

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the  snow,  and  M'hile  we  settled  nearer  the  smgle 
precious  fire,  took  his  place  at  the  piano  and 
struck  the  beautiful  opening  chords  of  the 
Cesar  Franck  sonata.  From  that  his  fingers 
wandered  off  into  some  lovely  Grieg  things 
that  held  us  until  after  eleven,  when  all  the 
family  except  myself  (I  was  prevented  by  an 
annoying  cough)  set  out  for  the  midnight 
mass. 

Christmas  morning  ])roke  deliciously  crisp 
and  clear,  and  we  started  early  for  the  nine 
o'clock  service  at  which  Monseigneur  Mas 
again  to  officiate.  It  was  almost  unbelievable, 
that  after  all,  there  still  stood  the  beautiful 
cathedral;  as  injury  succeeded  injury  during 
the  terrible  years,  we  had  hardly  dare  hope  it 
might  survive.  The  lovely  tower  of  Saint 
Rombauld  we  had  always  sighted  with  joy  on 
our  trips  from  Antwerp  to  Brussels.  To  be 
sure  there  were  ugly  brick  patches  filling  in 
the  wounds  of  the  nave,  shattered  glass  was 
unmendcd,  and  ruined  parts,  not  vital,  wen; 
unrepaired.     Inside,  we  found  the  chapel  alii 

IGG 


The  Cardinal  at  Home 


the  right  still  a  wreck;  old  marble  panels 
leaned  against  the  steps.  But  the  great  struc- 
ture stood,  and  this  morning  at  the  left  of  the 
choir  was  the  familiar,  joyous  manger  scene, 
with  the  star  above  the  Holy  Babe  still  shining 
as  brightly  as  if  the  clouds  of  no  world  con- 
flagration had  ever  obscured  its  beams  of  hoi)e, 
nor  the  uproar  of  any  world-cataclysm  had 
ever  interrupted  the  continuous  music  of  the 
first  heavenly  message  of  peace  and  good  will. 
The  choir  was  dignified  and  simple.  The 
morning  sun  shone  graciously  on  the  few  pots 
of  laurel  and  sword  ferns,  on  the  holy  altar, 
and  on  the  Cardinal's  dais  of  soft  red  velvet, 
embroidered  in  gold.  I  cannot  convey  the  in- 
timate and  moving  beauty  of  this  first  free 
Christmas  service,  nor  how  truly  the  tall  Car- 
dinal in  his  magnificent  gold  and  white  vest- 
ments, as  he  approached  the  high  altar,  seemed 
a  very  priest  of  God.  After  mass  we  stood  on 
the  sidewalk  to  watch  him,  now  in  scarlet  robes 
and  accomi^anied  by  six  acolytes  in  black,  pass 
through  the  street  to  the  palace.    Wliat  a  pic- 

167 


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ture   of  old-world  beauty  and   grandeur  he 
represented ! 

I  should  have  preferred  not  being  received 
on  Christmas  morning,  knowing  how  many 
services  His  Eminence  had  to  conduct  within 
twenty-four  hours,  but  he  himself  had  said  he 
wished  to  see  me.  So  about  fifteen  minutes 
later  I  was  again  entering,  with  M.  Dessain, 
the  door  near  which  INIr.  Hoover,  my  husband, 
and  I  had  taken  leave  of  the  Cardinal,  one 
dark  day  at  the  close  of  1916.  AVe  had  been 
received  upstairs,  and  after  a  half-hour's  re- 
view of  an  increasingly  heart-breaking  situa- 
tion, testing  all  the  capacities  and  courage  of 
men,  we  had  said  good-bye  before  starting  for 
the  Holland  frontier.  It  had  seemed  to  me  as 
these  men  talked  that  all  Belgium  was  gathered 
in  that  little  room,  where  questions  concern- 
ing the  physical  and  spiritual  life  and  death  of 
its  imprisoned  millions  were  put  and  answered 
—  if  they  could  be.  ISIr.  Hoover  and  my  hus- 
band were  going  out  temporarily  (though  no 
one  was  ever  sure  that  the  existing  relief  ar- 

108 


The  Cardinal  at  Home 


rangement  would  last)  and  I  for  a  longer 
time.    It  was  a  sad  parting. 

As  we  walked  slowly  down  the  staircase,  the 
men  ahead,  I  felt  suddenly  that  someone  was 
following  us,  and  turning  my  head  slightly, 
caught  just  the  gleam  of  a  bright  robe.  The 
men  did  not  see  it  until  we  reached  the  foot  of 
the  stairs  and  were  moving  across  the  hall 
toward  the  street  door ;  then,  they,  too,  realized 
that  the  Cardinal  had  come  after  us,  and  we 
separated  silently  into  a  kind  of  semicircle  to 
wait  for  what  he  might  have  to  say.  But  he 
did  not  open  his  lips.  He  stood  silently  for 
just  a  moment  at  the  foot  of  the  ancient  stair- 
case, and  then  simply  stretched  out  his  hands 
in  a  mute  gesture  at  once  of  appeal  and  fare- 
well. The  American  men  were  biting  their 
lips  to  hold  back  the  tears;  the  Belgian  did 
not  try.  He  turned  the  knob  of  the  door  and 
as  we  slipped  out  into  the  street,  he  said,  "  That 
has  never  happened  before." 

Just  two  years  had  passed  since  that  day, 
years  of  ever-deepening  tragedy  for  Belgium, 

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during  "which  the  Cardinal  had  fought  with 
ever  greater  courage  to  save  his  people  from 
despair  and  defeat.  Always  he  battled  with 
the  vigor  of  a  young  man;  he  lived  austerely, 
sustained  by  spiritual  bread. 

This  Christmas  morning  I  passed  again 
along  the  corridor  which  looks  on  the  inner 
gardens  of  the  archicpiscopal  palace,  where 
green  growing  things  spell  out  the  verse  from 
the  Canticle  of  the  children  in  the  fiery  furnace, 
Be7icdicite  germinantia  Domina,  All  growing 
things  bless  the  Lord.  We  crossed  the  im- 
posing audience  chamber  with  its  shell-torn 
ceiling  to  the  small  informal  reception  room 
that  I  so  vividly  remembered,  with  its  beautiful 
ivory  crucifix,  the  few  oil  paintings,  and  the 
photograph  of  our  American  Minister,  ]\Ir. 
Brand  Whitlock,  on  the  console.  Here  we 
were  received.  I  find  in  my  diary  after  that 
visit,  noting  the  vcr}'^  human  side  of  the 
Cardinal,  the  words,  "  informality,  friendli- 
ness, boyish  pleasure  in  amusing  anecdote, 
humor." 

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The  Cardinal  at  Home 


In  our  conversation  I  tried  to  express  a 
little  of  America's  debt  to  His  Eminence  as 
spiritual  leader  of  the  oppressed  forces  of 
right,  a  little  of  how  much  Belgium  and  his 
personal  exemplification  of  what  she  stood  for 
helped  us,  so  far  away,  to  understand  the  issues 
of  the  war.  He  followed  thoughtfully,  re- 
marking at  the  end  that  King  George  had 
recently  said  much  the  same  thing,  for  Eng- 
land. I  then  told  him  how  our  people,  Cath- 
olic and  non-Catholic,  alike,  acclaimed  him. 
*'  I  think  I  find,"  he  said,  "  in  this  sympathy 
and  friendship  of  America  an  evidence  of 
God's  approval  of  a  right  action.  In  the  be- 
ginning I  had  to  consider  that  in  denouncing 
prelates  in  the  countries  that  oppressed  us  who 
acted  contrary  to  justice,  I  might  be  furnishing 
a  weapon  for  radicals  against  my  own  church. 
They  who  are  against  us  and  would  destroy  us 
would  be  quick  to  say,  *  You  see  that  one  in- 
side acknowledges  the  wrong  within  his 
church.'  But  I  reasoned  that  it  was  not  for 
me  to  question  the  result  in  a  matter  so  clearly 

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one  of  justice  and  duty.  And  God  has  proved 
I  was  right." 

M.  Dessain  smiled  at  me.  He  had  often  told 
me  that  the  Cardinal  had  been  very  happy  in 
the  tribute  of  understanding  friendshix^  that 
came  to  him  from  our  country. 

"  But  you  will  now  plan  to  visit  those  friends 
in  America?"  I  urged.  He  smiled  boyishly, 
"  But  do  you  think  I  should,  when  I  do  not 
know  English  sufficiently  well  ?  At  least  j'^ou," 
he  turned  to  ]M.  Dessain,  "  will  have  to  accom- 
pany me  as  interpreter.  You,  as  advocate,  will 
very  appropriately  pronounce  my  discourses ! " 

"  Yes,  I  wish  to  go,"  he  continued.  "  I  wish 
chiefly  to  go  to  thank  America  for  her  great 
gift  of  sympathy  and  understanding.  And  I 
wish  very  particularly  to  thank  her  for  her 
interest  in  the  re-building  of  the  library  of 
Louvain.  That  library  is  the  child  of  my  heart. 
Besides  there  are  many  other  reasons." 

And  so  we  talked  on  for  more  than  an  hour 
that  Christmas  morning.  I  felt  several  times 
that  I  should  somehow  have  been  able  to  pre- 

172 


The  Cardinal  at  Home 


vent  a  too-generous  giving  of  time,  but  evi- 
dently His  Eminence  wished  to  talk  and  he 
wished  me  to  talk  quite  frankly.  I  was  bold 
enough  to  say  that  many  have  felt  that  during 
this  war  the  Catholic  church  failed  to  seize  one 
of  the  greatest  opportunities  in  its  history,  that 
if  it  could  have  taken  a  step  freely  forward, 
sloughing  off  many  of  the  trappings  unessen- 
tial to  spiritual  life,  that  bind  it  to  the  past, 
freeing  itself  once  and  for  all  of  a  certain  type 
of  temporal  ambition,  we  might  at  least  have 
had  the  great  universal  church  for  which  the 
world  still  waits.  The  Cardinal  was  patient 
in  explaining  how  the  Church  admits  of  lib- 
erty and  growth  within,  though  from  the  out- 
side it  may  appear  not  to.  "  But  there  is  one 
thing  that  can  never  change,"  and  his  face  was 
suffused  with  a  passionate  earnestness  as  he 
spoke,  "  all  Catholics  rest  always  in  the  belief 
in  the  divine  revelation  of  the  Scriptures  and 
in  the  divinely  ordained  apostolic  succession. 
No,  there  remains  the  unbridgeable  gulf  on  this 
point  of  doctrine,"  he  smiled,  "  that  cannot 

173 


Mercier 

change.  The  best  we  can  do  as  Catholics  and 
non-Catholics  is  to  seek  our  points  of  union, 
our  common  beliefs,  and  while  recognizing  the 
unalterable  difference  between  us,  to  meet  on 
those  common  grounds.  In  this  way  we  shall 
yet  work  together  for  the  glory  of  God." 

We  turned  for  a  few  mmutes  to  the  pam- 
phlets and  books  on  the  table,  and  to  friendly 
questionings  and  well-wishing.  And  I  went 
away  with  Christmas  gifts  of  boolcs  and  an 
autographed  photograph.  xVnd  I  wondered, 
as  I  walked  again  past  the  peaceful  snow- 
covered  gardens,  how  this  great  man,  over- 
whehned  with  world  burdens,  could  give  to  so 
many  —  for  I  was  but  one  of  those  who 
through  the  years  have  been  the  recipients  of 
his  beautiful  hospitality  —  so  generously.  And 
then  I  remembered  that  he  said  once,  in  a 
letter  to  his  priests,  "  It  is  not  enough  to  give 
what  one  has,  if  one  is  not  disi)oscd  also  to 
give  what  one  is." 


CHAPTER   VIII 

AFTER  THE  ARMISTICE— THE    VISIT  TO  AMERICA 

One  of  the  first  questions  asked  by  the  few- 
strangers  lucky  enough  to  get  into  Brussels 
during  those  tremendous  days  immediately  fol- 
lowing the  armistice,  was:  "Where  is  Car- 
dinal Mercier?"  "Can  we  see  His  Emi- 
nence?" They  wished  to  offer  him  their 
tribute  of  admiration  and  homage ;  the  road  to 
Malines  was  a  way  of  pilgrimage.  The  Car- 
dinal had,  too,  a  rewarding  share  in  the  tri- 
umph of  November  22nd,  the  never  to  be 
forgotten  home-coming  day  of  the  King  and 
Queen. 

I  followed  the  preparations  for  that  day 
with  an  emotion  approaching  that  of  the  Bel- 
gians themselves.  It  was  sweet  to  see  them  — 
before  the  sodden,  loot-laden  retreating  army 
of  the  occupying  powers  had  w^ll  cleared  the 
city  limits  —  forgetful  of  their  hunger   and 

175 


Mercier 

misery,  hurriedly  set  to  work  to  scrape  the 
moss  of  four  years  from  the  stones  in  front 
of  the  Toyal  palace,  throw  open  and  brush  up 
and  rake  over  the  prettj''  park  from  which  they 
had  so  long  been  barred,  dig  deep  pits  foe 
bright  banner  standards,  and  erect  pedestals 
for  commemorative  statues  wherever  they 
could.  The  entire  populace  turned  feverishly 
to  scrubbing  and  disinfecting  and  beautifying, 
to  cleanse  the  city  of  pollution  and  make  it  fit 
for  the  return  of  the  exiles.  And  by  Novem- 
ber 22nd,  they  had  finished,  and  with  smiles 
and  tears  and  flags  and  flowers  they  cried  their 
welcome  to  their  beloved  Albert  and  Elizabeth. 
I  watched  it  all  from  a  balcony  of  the  De- 
partment of  Foreign  Afi'airs,  caught  in  the 
tide  of  emotion  that  surged  over  the  nmltitude 
that  since  da\Mi  and  even  through  the  night 
had  j)acked  the  walks  and  parks  and  leaned 
from  the  roofs  and  trees,  tensely  waiting.  The 
blue  day,  dropped  l)y  the  grace  of  God  into 
the  end  of  a  drear  Novcm])cr,  furnislied  a  ])ack- 
ground  of  exquisite  and  poignant  l)cauty  for 

170 


After  the  Armistice 


the  triumphal  pageant,  as,  heralded  by  the  glad 
national  air  unheard  in  the  capital  since  four 
years,  the  King  on  his  bay  and  the  Queen  on 
her  white  horse,  with  their  children  beside 
them,  rounded  the  corner  of  the  Rue  de  la  Loi, 
and  following  the  street-aisle  left  free  by  the 
tearful,  cheering  thousands,  approached  the 
parliament  buildings.  For  their  brave  escort 
of  thirty  thousand  allied  soldiers,  this  was  the 
first  fruit  of  success;  they  were  bringing  back 
to  their  own  the  Soldier-King  and  the  Queen- 
Nurse.  Battle-tested,  scarred,  and  stern  these 
soldiers  looked,  under  the  soft  blue  sky,  but 
there  was  also  the  joy  of  victory  in  their  faces 
and  in  their  marching,  and  chrysanthemums 
blossomed  from  many  a  pommel  and  gun- 
barrel. 

After  the  review  in  front  of  the  Parliament 
Buildings,  we  went  into  the  historic  chamber 
where  the  representatives  of  the  nation  were 
gathered  to  hear  the  home-coming  speech  of 
their  King.  These  were  the  men,  who  on 
August  2,  1914,  had  upheld  his  hand  when,  in 

177 


Mercier 

answer  to  the  German  threat,  he  raised  the 
sword.  Outside,  the  outposts  of  emotion  were 
beyond  the  beflagged  fa9ades  and  the  wide 
vistas  of  tree-lined  boulevards  and  parks, 
somewhere  off  in  the  stretches  of  blue  Novem- 
ber air  and  sky.  In  the  Chamber,  emotion  was 
concentrated  within  four  walls;  words  cannot 
convey  its  intensity. 

The  King  and  Queen  and  their  children  en- 
tered, followed  by  General  Leman,  the  de- 
fender of  Liege,  by  Burgomaster  ^lax,  the 
neutral  ministers,  the  Directors  of  the  National 
Relief  Committee,  a  group  of  allied  officers, 
brilliant  in  ribbons  and  medals,  and  most  con- 
spicuous among  them  all,  the  Primate  of  Bel- 
gium, whose  flaming  robe  seemed,  on  that  day, 
a  very  garment  of  victory. 

As  the  nation's  law-makers,  freely  assem- 
bled once  more  after  the  long  rule  of  brute 
force,  watched  their  stalwart,  calm-eyed  King, 
in  simple  field  uniform,  quietly  mount  the 
rostrum  above  which  the  echoes  of  the  immor- 
tal words  —  "A  country  that  defends  itself  im- 

178 


After  the  Armistice 


poses  itself  on  the  respect  of  all,  that  country 
will  not  perish"  —  still  lingered,  they  did  not 
attempt  to  conceal  their  tears.  On  his  face,  as 
on  their  own,  was  WTitten  the  suffering  of  the 
four  years. 

The  manly  Prince  Leopold  stood  beside  his 
father.  And  Queen  Elizabeth,  looking  frail 
and  tired,  but  very  lovely  in  her  soft  tan  habit 
and  mantle,  after  stopping  for  a  word  of  greet- 
ing with  His  Eminence,  crossed  the  Chamber 
to  the  velvet-canopied  platform  at  the  right  of 
the  rostrum.  She  was  attended  by  the  Com- 
tess  de  Grunne  and  a  lady  in  waiting;  and 
the  adored  little  Princess  Marie-Jose,  Prince 
Charles-Theodore,  and  their  royal  visitor,  the 
second  son  of  King  George,  sat  with  her. 

The  company  of  honored  guests  crowded 
every  foot  of  space  at  the  opposite  side  of  the 
room;  first  among  them,  standing  just  next  to 
the  rostrum,  was  Cardinal  Mercier,  with  Mr. 
Solvay,  Belgium's  most  widely  know  philan- 
thropist, and  Burgomaster  JNIax  beside  him. 
In  no  other  country  was  the  Great  Deliverance 

179 


M 


ercicr 


vizualized  in  a  more  impressive  and  significant 
scene  than  this.  And  as  we  looked  and  listened, 
our  eyes  turned  from  the  khaki-clad  Soldier- 
King  to  the  scarlet-robed  soldier  of  the  Church, 
and  then  back  again  to  the  King.  This  was  the 
King's  day,  but  to  all  it  seemed  fitting  that 
the  Primate  should  stand  near  him. 

^\nien  Parliament  assembled  a  second  time 
to  express  the  nation's  gratitude  to  the  neutral 
ministers  who  had  chosen  to  remain  in  the  in- 
vaded territory  and  fight  their  own  fight  with 
neutral  weai^ons,  in  the  most  extraordinary  sit- 
uation in  which  diplomats  ever  found  them- 
selves. His  Eminence  was  again  the  most  strik- 
ing figure  on  the  floor.  And  INIr.  "WHiitlock, 
in  responding  to  an  address,  delicately  de- 
flected the  j)raise  intended  for  himself  and  his 
country  to  Belgium,  directing  it  to  the  King 
and  Queen  and  their  soldiers,  and  to  the 
weaponless  heroes  of  Inside  and  their  General, 
the  Cardinal.  This  created  an  opening  for 
such  enthusiastic  applause  of  the  powerful 
Catholic  leader,   even   by  liis  political   rivals, 

180 


After  the  Armistice 


that  he  was  obliged  to  rise  to  it.  His  mere 
silent  acknowledgment  was  impressive. 

Indeed,  His  Eminence  spent  almost  as  much 
time  in  Brussels  as  in  Malines,  during  these 
days.  He  officiated  at  the  solemn  and  splendid 
thanksgiving  mass  at  Sainte  Gudule.  He 
spoke,  too,  at  the  Conference  called  to  review, 
before  their  majesties,  the  relief  work  that 
saved  Belgium's  children.  One  special  meet- 
ing followed  another,  and  usually  he  was 
present. 

Nor  was  he  absent  from  those  other  purely 
social  functions  in  which  the  Bruxellois  now 
bravely  began  trying  to  gather  up  the  threads 
of  their  pre-war  days.  Happily,  his  spirit- 
uality, conspicuous  and  dominating  as  it  is 
among  all  his  characteristics,  does  not  preclude 
the  possession  of  an  unusual  charm  of  simple 
humanness  and  a  delightful  social  grace  and 
delicate  sense  of  humor.  These  possessions 
make  him  a  figure  of  almost  fascinating  attrac- 
tiveness in  any  gathering  which  he  attends. 
I  remember  the  first  reception  at  the  Spanish 

181 


Mercier 

Legation,  where,  though  there  had  been  no 
thought  of  fashions  for  more  than  four  years, 
women  contrived,  after  unearthing  old  satins 
and  fans  and  jewels,  to  produce  the  effect,  in 
the  Minister's  richly  ajipointed  rooms,  of  a 
very  brilliant  company.  Among  these  women, 
certain  men  were  conspicuous.  One  quickly 
singled  out  the  tall  and  elegant  iNIr.  Whitlock, 
and  there  were  army  olHcers  with  double  rows 
of  decorations,  and  other  diplomats  in  court 
dress;  but  towering  above  them  all,  quite  the 
most  commanding  and  picturesque  figure  in 
the  room,  was  the  Cardinal.  Always  about  him 
was  a  pressure  of  eager  listeners,  for  even  on 
such  occasions,  where  conversation  is  neces- 
sarily fleeting  and  scattered,  the  Cardinal's 
simple  direct  speech,  with  its  revelation  of 
humanncss,  is  a  thing  to  lose  as  little  of  as 
possible. 

During  the  spring  and  early  summer  months 
there  was  niucli  talk  of  the  Primate's  long- 
planned  trip  to  the  United  States.  lie  wished 
to  go  to  express  his  personal  and  his  country's 

182 


After  the  Armistice 


gratitude  for  the  sustaining  sympathy  and 
practical  help  that  had  come  from  across  the 
Atlantic;  he  wanted  also  to  better  organize 
the  enterprises  already  on  foot  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  library  of  Louvain;  Belgians  de- 
sired their  great  man  to  go  as  their  emissary 
to  carry  grateful  messages.  In  June,  Presi- 
dent Wilson,  when  he  visited  Malines,  where 
the  Cardinal  greeted  him  as  the  author  of 
peace,  warmly  assured  him  of  the  welcome 
awaiting  him  in  our  country,  strengthening,  if 
that  were  necessary,  his  determination  to  un- 
dertake the  journey.  And  as  the  weeks  passed 
the  reasons  why  he  should  attempt  it  multi- 
plied. 

About  mid-summer,  I  wrote  from  Cali- 
fornia to  ask  if  we  might  prepare  for  his  visit, 
and  received  the  following  characteristically 
charming  and  friendlj^  letter  in  reply: 

Malines,  1st  July,  '19. 
Dear  Madam: 

You  have  been  kind  enough  to  ask  through  the 
courtesy  of  the  Belgian  Minister  to  the  United  States, 
if  I  have  the  hope  to  make  a  visit  to  your  compatriots. 

183 


Mercier 

To  speak  of  hope  is  to  say  too  little.  So  far  as  I  am 
concerned  my  decision  is  made,  and  if  nothing  unex- 
pected occurs  to  cut  across  my  plans  I  shall  have  the 
joy  to  arrive  about  mid-September  and  to  pass  the  month 
of  October  in  the  New  World. 

A  few  weeks  passed  on  that  soil  of  great  initiatives 
and  powerful  achievements,  will  give  back  to  me,  I  am 
confident,  a  little  of  the  vigor  of  youth  in  an  hour  when 
the  task  seems  laborious  and  very  heavy  for  aging 
shoulders. 

I  shall  try  to  translate  the  gratitude  of  Belgium 
toward  your  Great  Republic,  notably  for  the  creation 
of  the  admirable  Commission  for  Relief  in  Belgium,  to 
which  you  yourself  have  been  so  generously  devoted. 
And  I  hope  to  carry  away  on  my  return  a  part  of  the 
moral  comfort  which  the  fecund  energy  of  the  United 
States  diffuses  throughout  the  world. 

Accept,  dear  Madam,  with  my  grateful  souvenir  of 
your  good  visit  to  Malines,  our  respectful  and  devoted 
homage, 

S.  J.  Card.  Mercier, 

Arch,  de  Malines. 

Cardinal  IMcrcicr  embarked  at  Brest  on 
September  3,  1919,  on  the  transport  Northern 
Pacific  and  landed  in  New  York  Harbor,  Sep- 
tember 9th.  Among  others  attending  him  as 
secretaries  and  friends,  was  ]M.  Francis  Des- 

184 


After  the  Armistice 


sain  of  Malines,  printer  of  the  Christmas  pas- 
toral, whose  interesting  experience  in  connec- 
tion with  it  is  described  in  an  earlier  chapter. 

//^  , /^-!  ^-^  -^  ^ — -*- 


'  ^ 


/*"•—«--,»—»,         t^^K—^'-'t^         '-^ 


^  cP.    ?,   /^i,^>^-'^r^-<'.><''^^^^>. 


We  did  not  need  to  be  urged  to  prepare  a  fit- 
ting welcome  for  the  Belgian  priest.  We  had 
begun  to  prepare  it  five  years  ago,  when  the  na- 
tion's idealism,  staggering  under  the  horror  of 


Mercier 

the  initial  war-thrusts,  first  sighted  the  austere 
figure  of  the  patriot-prelate,  standnig  fearless 
and  immovable,  at  the  very  point  where  bar- 
barism had  broken  through  the  defenses  of 
civilization,  and  heard  him  pronouncing  his 
clarion  arraignment  of  wrong  and  declaring  his 
unshakable  faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of 
divine  justice.  Other  men  were  saying  brave 
things  and  doing  brave  things,  but  the  people 
wanted  spiritual  leadership.  They  found  it 
there  on  the  frontier  of  German3\  Human 
evolution,  as  understood  by  us,  although  the 
biologist  may  not  wish  to  try  to  explain  it, 
involves  the  insistent  and  persistent  necessity 
of  spiritual  ideals  and  direction.  We  have 
wanted  it,  and  we  always  "will  want  it.  That 
we  want  it  to-day  is  one  explanation  of  our 
unprecedented  reception  to  the  militant  Car- 
dinal. 

His  o^^Tl  words  best  reveal  the  ardour  and 
simplicity  of  his  spirit  as  he  came  to  meet  us. 
"  I  have  come  to  thank  America  for  what  she 
has  done  for  Belgium,"  he  said  first,  and  then, 

18G 


After  the  Armistice 


"  On  the  evening  of  my  landing  here,  on  my 
meeting  you,  your  civil,  military,  and  religious 
authorities,  in  your  marvelous  harbor,  and 
while  traversing  your  immense  avenue,  I  felt 
overwhelmed  by  emotion;  I  was  indeed  living 
one  of  the  most  solemn  hours  of  my  life." 

A  cause  always  gains  if  in  personal  appear- 
ance its  protagonist  pleases  the  public  eye, 
and  the  cause  of  faith  and  justice  has  been 
especially  fortunate.  Everyw^here,  the  Car- 
dinal's nobility  of  countenance  and  carriage 
have  caught  the  attention  and  admiration 
of  those  who  saw  him.  He  seems  clothed  in  a 
garment  of  spirituality  and  power;  and  con- 
cretely and  strikingly  visible,  are  those  other 
picturesque  garments  of  his  office,  the  flowing 
soutane,  the  broad  black  beaver  hat  and  the 
scarlet  ceremonial  robes,  that  have  made  him  a 
marked  man  wherever  he  went. 

This  historic  visit  has  two  important  aspects : 
what  we  said  to  the  Cardinal  and  w^hat  the 
Cardinal  said  to  us.  We  said  many  things 
to  him,  some  exaggerated,  some  naive,  but  all 

187 


Mercier 

inspired  by  genuine  conviction  and  feeling. 
He  was  greeted  with  such  affectionate  news- 
paper headlines  as  "  Hearts  Ajar  for  Mercier," 
^'Already  Love  Him,"  "Will  Never  be  For- 
gotten," "  Welcome  to  Belgium's  Great  Hero- 
Priest,"  above  fervent  and  extended  tributes  of 
admiration  and  friendship,  from  which  I  quote 
three  or  four  illustrative  sentences: 

*'The  Cardinal's  fidelity  and  courage  have 
made  a  profound  impression  the  world  over  — 
nowhere  more  so  than  in  the  United  States. 
Already  our  people  love  him.  They  are  eager 
to  greet  him  as  a  true  champion  of  freedom, 
a  true  servant  of  humanity  and  faith." 

"To  the  people  of  this  country  Cardinal 
Mercier  is  more  than  a  personality;  he  is  an 
institution,  ^^^lcn  his  people  were  crushed 
under  the  iron  heel  of  German  military  rule, 
his  voice  alone  was  heard  around  the  world  in 
protest.  His  courage  was  compelling.  It 
made  of  him  a  world  figure.  He  revitalized 
the  whole  church  —  Protestant  and  Catholic  — 
throughout  America  and  the  Continent.  There 

188 


After  the  Armistice 


is  scarcely  a  Protestant  pulpit  in  America  that 
has  not  sounded  his  praise." 

"Cardinal  Mercier  kept  the  Belgian  con- 
science clear  and  the  national  consciousness 
alert.  It  was  he  who  branded  the  lie  upon  the 
royal  forehead,  when,  backed  by  overwhelming 
evidence,  he  issued  his  flaming  and  fearless 
'Appeal  to  Truth.*  .  .  .  This  is  the  patriot 
and  man  whom  America  welcomes  to-day ;  and 
she  never  welcomed  a  braver,  a  nobler,  a  more 
worthy  guest.  Ecclesiastically,  he  is  a  prince 
of  the  Church.  Humanly,  he  is  a  prince  of 
faith  so  triumphant  that  unbelief  itself  may 
well  afford  to  give  him  reverence." 

" '  I  have  come  to  thank  America  for  what 
she  has  done  for  Belgium,*  were  the  first  words 
which  His  Eminence  spoke  on  setting  foot  on 
land.  Our  debt  to  him  is  greater  than  Bel- 
gium's debt  to  us.  For  he  has  given  to  us,  as 
to  all  the  world,  a  matchless  example  of  moral 
strength  and  courage  to  keep  alive  our  faith 
in  the  power  of  good  over  evil." 

These  were  among  our  first  words  of  greet- 
189 


M 


ercter 


iiig  to  His  Eminence.  During  his  visit,  repre- 
sentatives of  our  people  added  addresses  of 
"Nvelcome  that  would  fill  volumes,  in  wliich  he 
was  hailed  as  the  leader,  who  in  a  moment  of 
gravest  peril  to  all  of  us,  revealed  the  cause  of 
the  Allies  to  all  a  world  only  waiting  to  be  con- 
vinced of  its  righteousness  to  insure  its  com- 
plete victory.  The  text  of  them  all  can  be 
smnmed  up  in  a  sentence  from  the  speech  in 
New  York  of  the  President  of  the  Federated 
Council  of  Churches :  "  You  are  admired  by  all 
because  you  stand  for  courage,  justice,  right- 
eousness, and  mercy;  you  stand  for  the 
spiritual  basis  of  this  world  and  the  foundation 
of  the  spiritual  world  which  is  to  come." 

And  while  wc  talked  we  acted.  The  press 
devoted  daily  columns  to  reporting  the  prog- 
ress of  our  guest  and  photograi^hcrs  collected 
a  veritable  gallery  illustrating  it.  School  chil- 
dren sang  for  the  protector  of  the  children  of 
Belgium,  soldiers  marched  for  him,  our  people 
applauded  liim.  Municipalities  conferred  upon 
him    the    title    of   honorary    citizen    as    they 

190 


After  the  Armistice 


wrapped  the  Stars  and  Stripes  about  his  ven- 
erable shoulders.  The  National  Convention 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  invited 
him  to  be  their  guest  and  to  address  them. 
Students  greeted  him  with  more  rousing  yells 
than  had  echoed  through  their  halls  in  years, 
while  the  universities  addressed  him  in  Latin 
(for  once  knowing  themselves  understood!) 
and  hung  brilliant  robes  upon  him. 

In  reality.  Cardinal  Mercier  had  done  his 
speaking — for  God  and  all  of  us — before  he 
arrived.  We  would  have  been  satisfied  if,  in 
visiting  us,  he  had  done  no  more  than  afford 
us  the  opportunity  to  say  what  we  wanted  to 
say  to  him.  But  that  was  far  from  his  o^\ti 
conception  of  the  purpose  of  his  coming.  He 
spoke  unwearyingly,  often  several  times  a 
day,  telling  us  how  our  jiarticipation  in  the  war 
looked,  what  it  meant  to  those  across  the  Atlan- 
tic, interpreting  Belgium's  gratitude  to  us. 

In  his  first  important  address,  he  said: 
^'America  had  no  territorial,  financial,  or  x^oliti- 
cal   interests   in   the   war.     Rather   was   she 

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bound  by  her  traditional  policy  to  keep  herself 
aloof  from  every  European  conflict.  America 
had  in  her  bosom  a  proportion  of  citizens  of 
German  origin,  and  appeared  to  a  foreign 
observer  rather  as  a  cosmopolitan  agglomera- 
tion than  one  homogeneous  unit.  But  this 
wonderful  country  showed  itself  to  be  animated 
by  one  soul,  permeating  all  parts  of  her  im- 
mense organism  and  giving  to  all  the  individ- 
uals the  same  high  ideal,  the  strongest  bond 
of  social  unity,  the  ideal  which  the  great  doctor 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  St.  Ambrose,  defined 
in  this  brief  and  splendid  motto:  'Above  all, 
honesty.' 

"America  saw  Belgium  struggling  and  suf- 
fering for  honor.  America  could  not  help 
esteeming,  loving,  admiring  Belgium.  She 
esteemed,  loved,  admired  Belgium  not  in  words 
but  in  deeds. 

"On  the  29th  of  Jime  last  the  Belgian 
people,  King  Albert,  Queen  Elizabeth,  and 
their  royal  cliildrcn,  in  union  wilh  the  whole 
hierarchy  and  clergy,  celebrated   in   Brussels 

192 


After  the  Armistice 


a  National  Thanksgiving  day.  A  religious 
monument  will  commemorate  for  future  gen- 
erations our  universal  gratitude.  A  chapel  of 
this,  our  national  basilica,  shall  be  dedicated 
to  the  great  Republic  of  the  United  States. 

"Accept,  please,  this  resolution  as  the  homage 
of  our  feelings  of  admiration  and  gratefulness 
toward  your  valiant  troops  who  saved  our 
liberty,  and  toward  Herbert  Hoover's  unpar- 
alleled Commission  for  Relief  in  Belgium, 
which  saved  the  very  lives  of  many  of  our  Bel- 
gian families. 

"Even  as  Belgium  was,  in  1914,  the  provi- 
dential instrument  to  bar  the  way  to  the  in- 
vaders, in  order  to  allow  France  and  England 
to  concentrate  their  forces  against  the  German 
colossus,  so  was  America,  in  1917,  the  main 
providential  factor  of  our  final  victory. 

"  Our  brotherhood  in  the  worship  of  the  same 
ideal  brought  our  nations  nearer  to  each  other, 
and  my  desire  to  clasp  your  hand  over  the 
cause  of  eternal  justice  is  u\y  first  reason  for 
coming  here." 

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The  Cardinal  delivered  his  first  address  in 
English,  and  some  of  us  who  knew,  only  a  few 
months  before,  of  his  difficulty  in  speaking  that 
language,  were  surprised  to  hear  him  talking 
here  as  if  he  had  had  long  practice  in  it.  But 
it  is  entirely  characteristic  of  the  tireless  mental 
activity  of  this  great  man,  that  he  should,  at 
sixty-eight,  add  mastery  of  another  language 
to  his  accomplishments,  and  also  that  liis  ex- 
quisite courtesy  should  make  it  seem  necessary 
to  him  to  speak  to  us  in  our  o^vn  tongue. 

After  this  opening  speech  at  Baltimore,  de- 
spite the  unavoidable  fatigue  of  travel,  and 
the  relentlessly  continuous  chain  of  receptions. 
Cardinal  ^lercicr  talked  during  the  succeeding 
weeks  at  greater  length  and  with  increasing 
eloquence.  Those  who  have  had  the  privilege 
of  listening  to  him  will  not  easily  forget  his 
portrayal  of  Belgium's  suffering  and  her  en- 
durance, and  her  need  of  our  continued 
cooperation,  nor  his  wonderfully  true  and 
apposite  analysis  of  the  formation  of  American 
pu1)lic  opinion  on  the  war.     "The  charactcr- 

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After  the  Armistice 


istic  of  your  peoj)lc,"  he  said,  "  is  their  strong 
individuality,  they  do  not  want  to  be  ruled  or 
led  tliis  way  or  that  until  they  see  for  them- 
selves which  way  to  go.  And  so  it  took  time 
to  mould  the  people  into  one  mind.  It  was 
providential,  because  it  was  essential  that 
America  should  come  into  the  war  absolutely 
united;  if  she  had  come  in  earlier  this  would 
not  have  been  the  case,  and  disaster  might  and 
probably  would  have  resulted."  When  during 
one  of  his  most  strenuous  speaking  trips,  he 
came  suddenly  upon  the  majestic  wonder  of 
Niagara  Falls  and  was  most  deeply  stirred 
by  the  sight,  he  turned  swiftly  to  make  a 
beautiful  comparison  between  Niagara  and 
America  in  the  war.  The  immense  sheet  of 
smooth,  quiet  waters  flowing  doAMi,  with  here 
and  there  a  speck  of  foam,  or  eddy,  indicating 
the  underlying  force  and  motion,  represented 
to  him  America's  apparent  callousness  or  in- 
difference at  the  beginning.  Then  he  saw  the 
waters  gathering  force  and  speed  as  they  closed 
round  the  three  sisters  (England,  France  and 

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Belgium),  beconiiiig  more  and  more  agitated, 
and  finallj^  plunging  forward  with  an  irresisti- 
ble impetus,  carrj^ing  all  before  them. 

He  solemnly  warned  us,  too,  that  though  the 
German  armies  are  defeated,  Germany  is  not 
crushed.  Her  arms  are  laid  do^^^l;  but  the 
Prussian  spirit  survives.  And,  finally,  toward 
the  close  of  his  visit,  to  our  great  satisfaction  — 
and  here  we  overwhelmed  him  with  applause 
—  he  talked  more  freely  of  his  own  single- 
handed  battle  with  the  enemy, —  of  his  methods 
of  attack  and  their  logical  victory. 

What  will  be  the  ultimate  effect  of  the  ex- 
pression by  Jew  and  Gentile,  Catholic  and 
Protestant,  of  love  and  admiration  for  this  il- 
lustrious Primate  of  the  Catholic  Church,  on 
his  thinking  and  practice?  How  much  will  it 
contribute  toward  that  Christian  unity  which 
is  still  a  hope  and  not  an  actuality  in  the  world  ? 
Knowing  what  opportunity  he  holds  in  his 
hand,  we  do  not  like  to  remember — and  in- 
deed it  is  dillicult  to  remember  it  as  we  speak 
with  him  —  that  this  aposlle  of  faith,  so  sorely 
196 


After  the  Armistice 


needed,  has  almost  reached  his  seventieth  year. 
The  terrible  days  of  the  Occupation  are  now 
history.  In  and  out  of  them,  against  all 
prevailing  darkness,  flashes  the  scarlet  robe  of 
the  fighting  Cardinal,  as  the  man  of  God 
moved  among  his  people  to  cheer  them,  and 
among  the  oppressors  to  defy  and  restrain 
them.  Where  help  and  comfort  and  encour- 
agement were  needed,  he  was  there  to  speak 
in  gentle  tones  the  words  that  aided;  where 
condemnation  of  brutality  and  wrong  and  pro- 
test and  defiance  needed  utterance,  his  lips  or 
pen  never  hesitated  to  utter  them  boldly.  In 
the  midst  of  the  abominable  deportations,  he 
WTote  to  Governor  General  von  Bissing: 
"This  is  no  longer  war;  it  is  an  attack  on 
humanity."  And  near  the  close  of  the  four 
years'  conflict,  he  summed  up  the  results  of  it 
all  in  a  single  sentence  uttered  to  the  German 
rulers  of  Belgium:  "Right  violated  is  still 
right;  injustice  supported  by  force  is  still 
injustice." 


CHArTER  IX 

TRENCHANT  SAYINGS   OF  THE   CARDINAL 

The  religion  of  Christ  makes  of  patriotism 
a  positive  law;  there  is  no  perfect  Christian 
who  is  not  also  a  perfect  patriot. 

Let  us  not  take  bravado  for  courage,  nor 
tumult  for  bravery. 

Affliction  is,  in  the  hand  of  Divine  Onmipo- 
tence,  a  two-edged  sword.  It  wounds  the  rebel- 
lious, it  sanctifies  him  who  is  willing  to  endure. 

Occupied  provinces  are  not  conquered 
provinces. 

Charity  is  union. 

Certainly  a  powerful  personality^  cannot  re- 
veal itself  fully,  without  riding  rough-shod 
over  humdrum  habits,  without  endangering 
even  estimable  claims  of  only  secondary  im- 
portance. 

....  The  bitter  but  comforting  savor  of 
self-denial. 

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Sayings  of  the  Cardinal 


The  world  grows  old,  but  the  Church  ever 
renews  her  youth. 

In  the  face  of  facts  no  presumption  holds 
good. 

Any  far-reaching  course  of  action  demands 
some  violence  at  the  start;  for  humanity,  as  a 
whole,  is  not  roused  without  a  shock  from  its 
drowsiness  or  its  dreams. 

The  certificate  of  our  spiritual  birth  was 
dated  and  authentically  signed,  with  blood  and 
tears,  on  Calvary. 

There  is  something  more  profoundly  sad 
than  political  divisions  and  material  disasters. 
It  is  the  hatred,  which  injustice,  real  or  sup- 
posed, stores  up  in  so  many  hearts  created  to 
love  one  another. 

Peace  is  defined  to  be  security  in  order,  order 
itself  being  the  expression  of  justice. 

Make  a  point  of  believing  that  others  are 
better  than  you. 

On  the  way  to  the  desired  end  even  legiti- 
mate pre-occupations  are  apt  to  be  offended 
and  some  souls  bound  to  be  disturbed  and  suf- 

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fer.  Those  lesser  human  vexations  are  the 
reverse  side  in  the  triumph  of  any  great  cause. 

The  disposition  to  see  good  in  others  is  the 
sign  of  a  good  heart. 

No  human  institution  resists  the  shock  of 
revolutions  or  the  wear  and  tear  of  time. 

It  is  only  too  true  that  the  nations  are  war- 
ring one  against  the  other;  all  the  souls  are 
nevertheless  of  one  family. 

No,  Grief  is  no  mere  word.  Grief  tears, 
undermines,  penetrates,  and  sometmies  kills. 
One  must  not  deny  it,  but  love  it. 

You  must  faithfully  obey  legitimate  au- 
thority, because  to  resist  such  authority  is  to 
resist  God. 

In  the  tribunal  of  the  world  intention  is 
judged  by  action. 

Draw  your  plans,  set  up  your  batteries,  ar- 
range your  movements,  but  still  man  will  pro- 
pose and  God  will  dispose. 

To  hate  is  to  make  it  one's  object  to  do 
harm  to  others  and  to  delight  in  so  doing. 
Whatever  may  be  our  sufferings,  we  must  not 

200 


Sayings  of  the  Cardinal 


wish  to  show  hatred  toward  those  who  have 
inflicted  them.  Our  national  unity  is  joined 
with  a  feeling  of  universal  brotherhood. 

But  even  this  feeling  of  universal  brother- 
hood is  dominated  by  our  respect  for  uncondi- 
tional justice,  without  which  no  relationship  is 
possible,  either  between  individuals  or  between 
nations. 

We  proclaim  that  public  retribution  is  a 
virtue. 

How  can  one  love  order  without  hating  dis- 
order? 

Providence  does  not  make  a  target  of  suffer- 
ing, but  a  weapon  wherewith  to  avenge  out- 
raged justice. 

He  who  hears  only  one  bell,  hears  only  one 
sound. 

It  needs  courage  to  throw  oneself  forward, 
but  it  needs  no  less  to  hold  oneself  back. 

Let  us  all  try  to  adopt  the  great  principle 
of  austerity  in  our  lives. 

Every  historical  period  is  a  page  in  the  di- 
vine book  of  Providence. 

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Keep  your  eyes  fixed  upon  the  polar  star 
of  your  eternity. 

And  industrial,  commercial,  or  financial  en- 
terprises, economic  institutions,  philanthropic, 
artistic,  or  literary  associations  —  do  not  all  of 
them  succeed  one  another  like  gray  clouds 
across  the  sky? 

The  bell  is  a  sacred  object;  its  function  is 
sacred.  It  associates  its  prayer  with  all  great 
memories,  happy  or  unhappy,  of  our  country. 

True  courage  is  not  made  of  passionate  im- 
pulse, but  of  self-restraint. 

Christianity  is  essentially  a  death  which 
leads  to  life. 

It  is  not  enough  to  do  good;  we  must  do 
good  aright. 

Always  honor  the  poor !  Give  them  the  first 
place  in  your  regard  and  in  your  care. 

Is  it  surprising  that  the  child  lisping  the  first 
letters  of  the  alphabet  should  not  grasp  the 
meaning  of  the  great  Book  of  History? 

Virtue  is  identical  with  charity  and  consists 
in  loving  what  we  ought  to  love. 

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Sayings  of  the  Cardinal 


The  key  of  history  is  the  Exaltation  of  the 
Holy  Cross. 

To  die  is  the  greatest  and  most  beautiful 
act  possible  to  men. 

Pride  and  greed  destroy  the  just  balance  of 
things;  so  that  repression  and  armed  defence 
are  necessary  for  its  restoration. 

So  long  as  the  grain  of  corn  dies  not  in  the 
Earth,  there  can  be  no  hope  of  life  and  fruit- 
fulness. 

As  for  you.  Ladies,  were  you  to  make  a 
show  of  abundance,  at  a  time  when  your  sisters 
have  only  clogs  and  threadbare  garments,  be 
sure  that  you  would  offend  God,  your  country, 
and  the  dignity  of  the  poor.  Make  the  sub- 
stance of  your  sacrifice  out  of  your  personal 
sufferings  and  your  national  sufferings,  as  well 
as  out  of  the  actions  of  your  lives. 

Death  is  not  only  a  violent  breaking-up  of 
our  existence,  to  which  we  are  forced  by  our 
fate  to  submit.  It  is  an  act,  also,  to  which  the 
soul  of  the  Christian  must  needs  assent. 

Exile  is  always  exile. 
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We  cannot  exclude  anyone, —  not  even  our 
enemies, —  from  our  prayers. 

Beware  of  getting  rich  —  that  would  be 
odious  —  at  the  expense  of  the  poverty  of 
others. 

No  peace  is  possible  M'ithout  order,  and 
order  rests  upon  justice  and  charity. 

In  civilized  countries  man  has  a  right  to 
liberty  in  the  choice  of  his  work.  He  has  a 
right  to  his  home.  He  has  the  right  to  reserve 
his  services  for  his  o^\^l  comitr3\ 

In  good  fortune  it  is  easy  to  do  without  our 
neighbors;  success  makes  one  selfish.  But  in 
sorrow  man  feels  the  ground  give  May  under 
his  feet.  He  calls  for  help.  God  and  his 
neighbor  become  necessary  to  him. 

As  to  truth,  it  must  stand  a])ove  everj'^thing. 
Sincerity  is  the  most  essential  of  duties. 

Faith  should  impregnate  the  whole  life,  the 
intercourse  of  individuals  and  the  intercourse 
of  Societies. 

Eternity!  My  brethren,  all  of  us  lack  cour- 
age to  look  it,  even  once,  full  in  the  face. 

204 


Sayings  of  the  Cardinal 


Philanthropy  is  not  love. 

We  cannot,  without  cowardice,  let  a  lie 
prevail. 

Faith  in  Christ  is  the  touch-stone  of  health. 

Are  political  parties  worth  even  the  trouble 
of  counting  them?  Have  you  ever  known  one 
of  them  to  last  for  the  space  of  a  century? 

Naturalism  is  the  misunderstanding  of  the 
supernatural  order. 

Reason,  without  faith,  is  shortsighted;  the 
will  without  grace,  limps. 

Man  is  not  perfect,  but  he  is  perfectible. 

Humility  is  justice, —  that  is,  justice  in  the 
general  acceptance  of  the  word,  as  the  accom- 
plishment of  moral  order.  Pride,  on  the  con- 
trarj^  is  essentially  disorder. 

Faith  seeks,  intelligence  finds. 

The  goal  of  the  law  of  intelligence  is  the 
discovery  of  God. 

The  man  who  goes  astray  is  always  better 
than  his  principles. 

We  are  not  in  the  world  to  enjoy  ourselves, 
but  to  learn  how  to  die. 

205 


CHAPTER  X 

TEXT  OF  THE  CHKISTM^VS  P^VSTORAL 
PATEIOTISM  AND  ENDURANCE 

Christmas,  1914. 
!My  Very  De.vr  Brethren, 

I  cannot  tell  you  how  instant  and  how  pres- 
ent the  thought  of  you  has  been  to  me  through- 
out the  months  of  suffering  and  of  mourning 
through  which  we  have  passed.  I  had  to  leave 
you  abruptly  on  the  20th  of  August  in  order 
to  fulfil  my  last  duty  towards  the  beloved  and 
venerated  Pope  whom  we  have  lost,  and  in 
order  to  discharge  an  obligation  of  conscience 
from  which  I  could  not  dispense  myself,  in  the 
election  of  the  successor  of  Pius  the  Tenth, 
the  Pontiff  who  now  directs  the  Church  under 
the  title,  full  of  promise  and  of  hope,  of  Bene- 
dict the  Fifteenth. 

It  was  in  Rome  itself  that  I  received  the  tid- 
ings—  stroke  after  stroke  —  of  the  partial  de- 

20G 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

struction  of  the  Collegiate  church  of  Louvain, 
next  of  the  burning  of  the  Library  and  of  the 
scientific  laboratories  of  our  great  University 
and  of  the  devastation  of  the  city,  and  next  of 
the  wholesale  shooting  of  citizens,  and  tor- 
tures inflicted  upon  women  and  children,  and 
upon  unarmed  and  undefended  men.  And 
while  I  was  still  under  the  shock  of  these 
calamities  the  telegraph  brought  us  news  of  the 
bombardment  of  our  beautiful  metropolitan 
church,  of  the  church  of  Notre  Dame  au  dela 
la  Dyle,  of  the  episcopal  palace,  and  of  a  great 
part  of  our  dear  city  of  Malines. 

Afar  from  my  diocese,  without  means  of 
communication  with  you,  I  was  compelled  to 
lock  my  grief  within  my  o^vn  afflicted  heart, 
and  to  carry  it,  with  the  thought  of  you,  which 
never  left  me,  to  the  foot  of  the  Crucifix. 

I  craved  courage  and  light,  and  sought  them 
in  such  thoughts  as  these:  A  disaster  has 
visited  the  world,  and  our  beloved  little  Bel- 
gium, a  nation  so  faithful  in  the  great  mass 
of  her  population  to  God,  so  upright  in  her 

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patriotism,  so  noble  iii  her  King  and  Govern- 
ment, is  the  first  sufferer.  She  bleeds ;  her  sons 
are  stricken  dovm  within  her  fortresses  and 
upon  her  fields  in  defense  of  her  rights  and  of 
her  territory.  Soon  there  will  not  be  one  Bel- 
gian family  not  in  mourning.  AVhy  all  this 
sorrow,  my  God?  Lord,  Lord,  hast  Thou  for- 
saken us?  Then  I  looked  upon  the  Crucifix. 
I  looked  upon  Jesus,  most  gentle  and  humble 
Lamb  of  God,  crushed,  clothed  in  His  blood 
as  in  a  garment,  and  I  thought  I  heard  from 
His  own  mouth  the  words  which  the  Psalmist 
uttered  in  His  name:  "  O  God,  my  Gk)d,  look 
upon  me;  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me?  O 
my  God,  I  shall  cry,  and  Thou  wilt  not  hear.'* 
And  forthwith  the  murmur  died  upon  my  lips; 
and  I  remembered  what  Our  Divine  Saviour 
said  in  His  gospel:  *'  The  disciple  is  not  above 
the  master,  nor  the  servant  above  his  lord.'* 
The  Christian  is  the  servant  of  a  God  who  be- 
came man  in  order  to  suffer  and  to  die.  To 
rebel  against  pain,  to  revolt  against  Provi- 
dence, because  it  permits  grief  and  bereave- 

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Patriotism  and  Endurance 

ment,  is  to  forget  whence  we  came,  the 
school  in  M'hich  we  have  been  taught,  the 
example  that  each  of  us  carries  graven  in 
the  name  of  a  Christian,  which  each  of  us 
honors  at  his  hearth,  contemplates  at  the 
altar  of  his  prayers,  and  of  which  he  desires 
that  his  tomb,  the  place  of  his  last  sleep,  shall 
bear  the  sign. 

My  dearest  Brethren,  I  shall  return  by  and 
by  to  the  providential  law  of  suffering,  but  you 
will  agree  that  since  it  has  pleased  a  God  made 
man,  who  was  holy,  innocent,  without  stain,  to 
suffer  and  to  die  for  us  who  are  sinners,  who 
are  guilty,  who  are  perhaps  criminals,  it  ill 
becomes  us  to  complain  Avhatever  we  may  be 
called  upon  to  endure.  The  truth  is  that  no 
disaster  on  earth,  striking  creatures  only,  is 
comparable  with  that  which  our  sins  provoked, 
and  whereof  Gk)d  Himself  chose  to  be  the 
blameless  victim. 

Having  recalled  to  mind  this  fundamental 
truth,  I  find  it  easier  to  summon  you  to  face 
what  has  befallen  us,  and  to  speak  to  you  sim- 

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ply  and  directly  of  what  is  your  duty,  and  of 
what  may  be  your  hoi^e.  That  duty  I  shall 
express  in  two  words:  Patriotism  and  Endur- 
ance. 

PATRIOTISM 

My  dearest  Brethren,  I  desire  to  utter,  in 
your  name  and  my  own,  the  gratitude  of  those 
whose  age,  vocation,  and  social  conditions 
cause  them  to  benefit  by  the  heroism  of  others, 
without  bearing  in  it  any  active  part. 

When,  immediately  on  my  return  from 
Rome,  I  went  to  Havre  to  greet  our  Belgian, 
French  and  English  Mounded;  when,  later  at 
INIalines,  at  Louvain,  at  Antwerx^,  it  was  given 
to  me  to  take  the  hands  of  those  brave  men  who 
carried  a  bullet  in  their  flesh,  a  wound  on  their 
forehead,  because  they  had  marched  to  the  at- 
tack of  the  enemy,  or  borne  the  shock  of  his 
onslaught,  it  was  a  word  of  gratitude  to  them 
that  rose  to  my  lips.  "O  valiant  friends,"  I 
said,  "it  was  for  us,  it  was  for  each  one  of  us, 
it  was  for  nic,  that  you  risked  your  lives  and 
arc  now  in  pain.     I  am  moved  to  tell  you  of 

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Patriotism  and  Endurance 

my  respect,  of  my  thankfulness,  to  assure  you 
that  the  whole  nation  knows  how  much  she  is 
in  debt  to  you.'* 

For  in  truth  our  soldiers  are  our  saviours. 

A  first  time,  at  Liege,  they  saved  France ;  a 
second  time,  in  Flanders,  they  arrested  the 
advance  of  the  enemy  uj)on  Calais.  France 
and  England  know  it;  and  Belgium  stands 
before  them  both,  and  before  the  entire  world, 
as  a  nation  of  heroes.  Never  before  in  my 
whole  life  did  I  feel  so  proud  to  be  a  Belgian 
as  when,  on  the  platforms  of  French  stations, 
and  halting  a  while  in  Paris,  and  visiting  Lon- 
don, I  was  witness  of  the  enthusiastic  admira- 
tion our  allies  feel  for  the  heroism  of  our  army. 
Our  King  is,  in  the  esteem  of  all,  at  the  very 
smimiit  of  the  moral  scale;  he  is  doubtless  the 
only  man  who  does  not  recognize  that  fact,  as, 
simple  as  the  simplest  of  his  soldiers,  he  stands 
in  the  trenches  and  puts  new  courage,  by  the 
serenity  of  his  face,  into  the  hearts  of  those 
of  whom  he  requires  that  they  shall  not  doubt 
their  country.     The  foremost  duty  of  every 

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Belgian  citizen  at  this  hour  is  gratitude  to  the 
army. 

If  any  man  had  rescued  you  from  shipwreck 
or  from  a  fire,  you  would  assuredly  hold  your- 
selves bound  to  him  by  a  debt  of  everlasting 
thankfulness.  But  it  is  not  one  man,  it  is  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  who  fought, 
who  suffered,  '\\ho  fell  for  you  so  that  you 
might  be  free,  so  that  Belgium  might  keep  her 
independence,  her  dynasty,  her  patriotic  unity ; 
so  that  after  the  vicissitudes  of  battle,  she 
might  rise  nobler,  purer,  more  erect,  and  more 
glorious  than  before. 

Pray  daily,  my  Brethren,  for  these  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand,  and  for  their  leaders 
to  victory ;  pray  for  our  brothers  in  arms ;  pray 
for  the  fallen ;  pray  for  those  who  are  still  en- 
gaged; pray  for  the  recruits  who  are  making 
ready  for  the  fight  to  come. 

In  your  name  I  send  them  the  greeting  of 
our  fraternal  sympathy  and  our  assurance  that 
not  only  do  we  pray  for  the  success  of  their 
arms  and  for  the  eternal  welfare  of  their  souls, 

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Patriotism  and  Endurance 

but  that  we  also  accept  for  their  sake  all  the 
distress,  whether  physical  or  moral,  that  falls 
to  our  own  share  in  the  oppression  that  hourly 
besets  us,  and  all  that  the  future  may  have  in 
store  for  us,  in  humiliation  for  a  time,  in 
anxiety,  and  in  sorrow.  In  the  day  of  final  vic- 
tory we  shall  all  be  in  honor;  it  is  just  that 
to-day  we  should  all  be  in  grief. 

To  judge  by  certain  rumors  that  have 
reached  me,  from  districts  that  have  had  least 
to  suffer,  some  bitter  words  have  arisen  towards 
our  God,  words  which,  if  spoken  with  cold  cal- 
culation, would  be  not  far  from  blasphemous. 

Oh,  all  too  easily  do  I  understand  how  natu- 
ral instinct  rebels  against  the  evils  that  have 
fallen  upon  Catholic  Belgium;  the  spontane- 
ous thought  of  mankind  is  ever  that  virtue 
should  have  its  instantaneous  cro^\^l,  and  in- 
justice its  immediate  retribution.  But  the 
ways  of  God  are  not  our  ways,  the  Scripture 
tells  us.  Providence  gives  free  course,  for  a 
time  measured  by  Divine  wisdom,  to  human 
passions  and  the  conflict  of  desires.    God,  be- 

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ing  eternal,  is  patient.  The  last  word  is  the 
word  of  mercy,  and  it  belongs  to  those  who 
believe  in  love.  "Why  art  thou  sad,  O  my 
soul?  and  why  dost  thou  disquiet  me?  Quare 
tristis  es  anima  mea,  et  quare  conturhas  me? 
Hope  in  God.  Bless  Him  always;  is  He  not 
thy  Saviour  and  thy  God?  Spcra  in  Deo 
quoniam  adhuc  confitebor  illi,  salutare  vultus 
mci  et  Dcus  mens" 

Wlien  holy  Job,  whom  Gk)d  presented  as  an 
example  of  constancy  to  the  generations  to 
come,  had  been  stricken,  blow  upon  blow,  by 
Satan,  with  the  loss  of  his  children,  of  his 
goods,  of  his  health,  his  enemies  approached 
him  with  provocations  to  discouragement;  his 
wife  urged  upon  him  a  blasphemy  and  a  curse. 
"Dost  thou  still  continue  in  thy  simplicity? 
Curse  God,  and  die."  15ut  the  man  of  God  was 
unshaken  in  his  confidence,  "iVnd  he  said  to 
her:  Thou  hast  spoken  like  one  of  the  foolish 
women :  if  we  have  received  good  things  at  the 
hand  of  God,  why  should  we  not  receive  evil? 
The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away. 

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Patriotism  and  Endurance 

As  it  hath  pleased  the  Lord  so  is  it  done. 
Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Dominus 
dedit,  Dominus  ahstulit;  sicut  Domino  placuit 
ita  factum  est.  Sit  nomen  Domini  henedic- 
turn."  And  experience  proved  that  saintly 
one  to  be  right.  It  pleased  the  Lord  to  recom- 
pense, even  here  below,  His  faithful  servant. 
"  The  Lord  gave  Job  twice  as  much  as  he  had 
before.  And  for  his  sake  God  pardoned  his 
friends." 

Better  than  any  other  man,  perhaps,  do  I 
know  what  our  unhappy  country  has  under- 
gone. Nor  will  any  Belgian,  I  trust,  doubt  of 
what  I  suffer  in  my  soul,  as  citizen  and  as  a 
Bishop,  in  sympathy  with  all  this  sorrow. 
These  last  four  months  have  seemed  to  me  age- 
long. By  thousands  have  our  brave  ones  been 
mown  down;  wives,  mothers,  are  weeping  for 
those  they  shall  not  see  again ;  hearths  are  deso- 
late; dire  poverty  spreads,  anguish  increases. 
At  Malines,  at  Antwerp,  the  jieople  of  two 
great  cities  have  been  given  over,  the  one  for 
six  hours,  the  other  for  thirty-four  hours,  to 

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a  continuous  bomtiardinent,  to  the  throes  of 
death.  I  have  traversed  the  greater  part  of 
the  districts  most  terribly  devastated  in  my 
diocese;  and  the  ruins  I  beheld,  and  the  ashes, 
were  more  dreadful  than  I,  prepared  by  the 
saddest  of  forebodings,  could  have  imagined. 
Other  parts  of  my  diocese,  which  I  have  not  yet 
had  time  to  visit,  have  in  like  manner  been 
laid  waste.  Churches,  schools,  asylums,  hos- 
pitals, convents  in  great  numbers,  are  in  ruins. 
Entire  villages  have  all  but  disappeared.  At 
Werchter-Wackerzeel,  for  instance,  out  of 
three  hundred  and  eighty  homes,  a  hundred 
and  thirty  remain;  at  Tremeloo  two-thirds  of 
the  village  are  overthrown ;  at  Bueken  out  of  a 
hundred  houses  twenty  are  standing;  at  Schaf- 
fen  one  hundred  and  eighty-nine  houses  out  of 
two  hundred  arc  destroyed  —  eleven  still  stand. 
At  Louvain  the  third  part  of  the  buildings 
are  do^vn;  one  thousand  and  seventy-four 
dwellings  have  disappeared;  on  the  town  land 
and  in  the  suburbs,  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  twenty-three  houses  have  been  burnt. 

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Patriotism  and  Endurance 

In  this  dear  city  of  Louvain,  i^erpetually 
in  my  thoughts,  the  magnificent  church  of  St. 
Peter  will  never  recover  its  former  splendor. 
The  ancient  college  of  St.  Ives,  the  art-schools, 
the  consular  and  commercial  schools  of  the 
University,  the  old  markets,  our  rich  library 
with  its  collections,  its  unique  and  unpublished 
manuscripts,  its  archives,  its  gallery  of  great 
portraits  of  illustrious  rectors,  chancellors,  pro- 
fessors, dating  from  the  time  of  its  foundation, 
which  preserved  for  masters  and  students  alike 
a  noble  tradition  and  were  an  incitement  in 
their  studies  —  all  this  accumulation  of  intel- 
lectual, of  historic,  and  of  artistic  riches,  the 
fruit  of  labors  of  five  centuries  —  all  is  reduced 
to  dust. 

Many  a  parish  lost  its  pastor.  There  is  now 
sounding  in  my  ears  the  sorrowful  voice  of  an 
old  man  of  whom  I  asked  whether  he  had  had 
Mass  on  Sunday  in  his  battered  church.  "  It 
is  two  months,"  he  said,  "  since  we  had  a 
church."  The  parish  priest  and  the  curate  had 
been  interned  in  a  concentration  camp. 

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Thousands  of  Belgian  citizens  have  in  like 
manner  been  deported  to  the  prisons  of  Ger- 
many, to  ^Imisterlagen,  to  Celle,  to  Magde- 
burg. At  ]Munsterlagcn  alone  three  thousand 
one  hundred  civil  prisoners  were  numbered. 
History  will  tell  of  the  physical  and  moral  tor- 
ments of  their  long  martyrdom.  Hundreds  of 
innocent  men  were  shot.  I  possess  no  complete 
necrology ;  but  I  know  that  there  were  ninety- 
one  shot  at  Aerschot,  and  that  there,  under 
pain  of  death,  their  fellow  citizens  were  com- 
pelled to  dig  their  graves.  In  the  Louvain 
group  of  conmiunes  one  himdrcd  and  seventy- 
six  persons,  men  and  women,  old  men  and 
sucklings,  rich  and  poor,  in  health  and  sicloiess, 
were  shot  or  burnt. 

In  my  diocese  alone  I  know  that  thirteen 
priests  or  men  in  orders  were  put  to  death.  One 
of  these,  the  parish  priest  of  Gelrode,  suffered, 
I  believe,  a  veritable  martyrdom.  I  made  a  pil- 
grimage to  his  grave,  and,  amid  the  little  flock 
whicli  so  lately  he  had  l)ccn  feeding  witli  the 
zeal  of  an  apostle,  there  did  I  pray  to  him  that 

218 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

from  the  height  of  Heaven  he  would  guard  his 
parish,  his  diocese,  his  country. 

We  can  neither  number  our  dead  nor  com- 
pute the  measure  of  our  ruins.  And  what 
would  it  be  if  we  turned  our  sad  steps  towards 
Liege,  Namur,  Andenne,  Dinant,  Tamines, 
Charleroi,  and  elsewhere? 

And  where  lives  were  not  taken,  and  where 
buildings  were  not  thro^vn  down,  what  anguish 
unrevealed!  Families,  hitherto  living  at  ease, 
now  in  bitter  want ;  all  commerce  at  an  end,  all 
careers  ruined;  industry  at  a  standstill;  thou- 
sands upon  thousands  of  working-men  with- 
out employment;  working- women,  shop-girls, 
humble  servant-girls  without  the  means  of 
earning  their  bread ;  and  poor  souls  forlorn  on 
the  bed  of  sicloiess  and  fever,  crying,  "  O  Lord, 
how  long,  how  long,  how  long? " 

There  is  nothing  to  reply.  The  reply  re- 
mains the  secret  of  God. 

Yes,  dearest  Brethren,  it  is  the  secret  of 
Gk)d.  He  is  the  master  of  events  and  the 
sovereign  director  of  the  human  race.     *'  The 

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earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fulness  thereof:  the 
world  and  all  they  that  dwell  therein.  Domini 
est  terra  et  plcnitudo  ejus;  orbis  tcrrarum  et 
universi  qui  habitant  in  co."  The  first  relation 
between  the  creature  and  his  Creator  is  that  of 
absolute  dependence.  The  very  being  of  the 
creature  is  dependent;  dependent  are  his  na- 
ture, his  faculties,  his  acts,  his  works.  At 
every  passing  moment  that  dependence  is  re- 
newed, is  incessantly  reasserted,  inasmuch  as, 
without  the  will  of  the  Almighty,  existence  of 
the  first  single  instant  would  vanish  before  the 
next.  Adoration,  which  is  the  recognition  of 
the  sovereignty  of  God,  is  not,  therefore,  a 
fugitive  act,  it  is  the  permanent  state  of  a 
being  conscious  of  his  o^\Tl  origin.  On  every 
page  of  the  Scriptures  Jehovah  affirms  His 
sovereign  dominion.  The  whole  economy  of 
the  Old  Law,  the  whole  history  of  the  Chosen 
People,  tend  to  the  same  end  —  to  maintain 
Jehovah  upon  His  throne  and  to  cast  idols 
down.  I  am  the  first  and  the  last.  *'  I  am  the 
Lord,  and  there  is  none  else;  there  is  no  God 

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Patriotism  and  Endurance 

beside  nie.  I  form  the  light  and  create  dark- 
ness, I  make  peace  and  create  evil.  Woe  to 
him  that  gainsayeth  his  maker,  a  sherd  of  the 
earthen  pots.  Shall  the  clay  say  to  him  that 
fashioneth  it.  What  art  thou  making,  and  thy 
work  is  without  hands?  Tell  ye,  and  come,  and 
consult  together.  A  just  Gk)d  and  a  saviour, 
there  is  none  beside  me." 

Ah,  did  the  proud  reason  of  mankind  dream 
that  it  could  dismiss  our  God?  Did  it  smile 
in  irony  when,  through  Christ  and  through 
His  Church,  He  pronounced  the  solemn  words 
of  expiation  and  of  repentance?  Vain  of 
fugitive  successes,  O  light-minded  man,  full  of 
pleasure  and  of  wealth,  hast  thou  imagined 
that  thou  couldst  suffice  even  to  thyself?  Then 
was  God  set  aside  in  oblivion,  then  was  He  mis- 
understood, then  was  He  blasphemed,  with 
acclamation,  and  by  those  whose  authority, 
whose  influence,  whose  power  had  charged 
them  with  the  duty  of  causing  His  great  laws 
and  His  great  order  to  be  reversed  and  obeyed. 
Anarchy  then  spread  among  the  lower  ranks  of 

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niaiikiiid,  and  many  sincere  consciences  were 
troubled  by  the  evil  example.  How  long,  O 
Lord,  they  wondered,  how  long  wilt  Thou 
suffer  the  pride  of  this  iniquity?  Or  wilt  Thou 
finally  justify  the  impious  oj^inion  that  Thou 
carest  no  more  for  the  work  of  Thy  hands? 
A  shock  from  a  thunderbolt,  and  behold  all 
human  foresight  is  set  at  naught.  Europe 
trembles  upon  the  brink  of  destruction. 

The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of 
wisdom. 

ISIany  are  the  thoughts  that  throng  the 
breast  of  men  to-day,  and  the  chief  of  them  all 
is  this:  God  reveals  Himself  as  the  ISIaster. 
The  nations  that  made  the  attack,  and  the  na- 
tions that  are  warring  in  self-defence,  alike 
confess  themselves  to  be  in  the  hands  of  Him 
without  whom  nothing  is  made,  nothing  is  done. 
iSIen  long  unaccustomed  to  prayer  arc  turning 
again  to  God.  Within  the  army,  within  the 
civil  world,  in  public,  and  within  the  individual 
conscience,  there  is  prayer.  Nor  is  that  prayer 
to-day  a  word  learnt  by  rote,  uttered  lightly 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

by  the  lip;  it  surges  from  the  troubled  heart, 
it  takes  the  form,  at  the  feet  of  God,  of  the 
very  sacrifice  of  life.  The  being  of  man  is  a 
whole  offering  to  God.  This  is  worship,  this 
is  the  fulfillment  of  the  primal  moral  and  re- 
ligious law:  the  Lord  thy  God  shalt  thou  adore, 
and  Him  only  shalt  thou  serve.  And  even 
those  who  murmur,  and  whose  courage  is  not 
sufficient  for  submission  to  the  hand  that  smites 
us  and  saves  us,  even  these  implicitly  acknow- 
ledge God  to  be  the  Master,  for  if  they  blas- 
pheme Him,  they  blaspheme  Him  for  His  de- 
lay in  closing  with  their  desires. 

But  as  for  us,  my  Brethren,  we  will  adore 
Him  in  the  integrity  of  our  souls.  Not  yet  do 
we  see,  in  all  its  magnificence,  the  revelation 
of  His  wisdom,  but  our  faith  trusts  Him  with 
it  all.  Before  His  justice  we  are  humble,  and 
in  His  mercy  hopeful.  With  holy  Tobias  we 
know  that  because  we  have  sinned.  He  has 
chastised  us,  but  because  He  is  merciful  He 
will  save  us. 

It  would  perhaps  be  cruel  to  dwell  upon  our 
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guilt  now,  M-hen  we  are  paying  so  well  and  so 
nobly  what  we  owe.  But  shall  we  not  confess 
that  we  have  indeed  something  to  expiate? 
He  who  has  received  much,  from  him  shall 
much  be  required.  Xow,  dare  we  say  that  the 
moral  and  religious  standard  of  our  people 
has  risen  as  its  economic  prosperity  has  risen? 
The  observance  of  Sunday  rest,  the  Sunday 
Mass,  the  reverence  for  marriage,  the  restraints 
of  modesty  —  what  had  you  made  of  these? 
Wliat,  even  within  Christian  families,  had  be- 
come of  the  simj^licity  practised  b^'^  our  fathers, 
what  of  the  spirit  of  penance,  what  of  respect 
for  authority?  And  we  too,  we  priests,  we 
religious  ones,  I,  the  Bishop,  we  whose  great 
mission  it  is  to  present  in  our  lives,  yet  more 
than  in  our  speech,  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  have 
we  earned  the  right  to  speak  to  our  people  the 
word  spoken  by  the  apostle  to  the  nations,  "  Be 
ye  followers  of  me,  as  I  also  am  of  Clirist?" 
We  labor  indeed,  we  pray  indeed,  but  it  is  all 
too  little.  We  should  be,  by  the  very  duty  of 
our  state,  the  public  expiators  for  the  sins  of 

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Patriottsm  and  Endurance 

the  world.  But  which  was  the  thing  dominant 
in  our  lives  —  expiation,  or  our  comfort  and 
well-being  as  citizens?  Alas,  we  have  all  had 
times  in  which  we  too  fell  under  God's  re- 
proach to  His  people  after  the  escape  from 
Egypt:  "The  beloved  grew  fat  and  wicked, 
they  have  provoked  me  with  that  which  was 
no  god,  and  I  will  provoke  them  with  that 
which  is  no  people."  Nevertheless,  He  will 
save  us;  for  He  wills  not  that  our  adversaries 
should  boast  that  they,  and  not  the  Eternal, 
did  these  things.  "  See  ye  that  I  alone  am,  and 
there  is  no  other  God  beside  me.  I  will  kill  and 
I  will  make  to  live,  I  will  strike  and  I  will 
heal." 

God  will  save  Belgium,  my  brethren,  you 
cannot  doubt  it. 

Nay  rather.  He  is  saving  her. 

Across  the  smoke  of  conflagration,  across  the 
stream  of  blood,  have  you  not  glimpses,  do 
you  not  perceive  signs,  of  His  love  for  us?  Is 
there  a  patriot  among  us  who  does  not  know 
that  Belgium  has  grown  great?    Nay,  which 

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of  us  would  have  the  heart  to  cancel  this  last 
page  of  our  national  history?  Which  of  us 
does  not  exult  in  the  brightness  of  the  glory 
of  this  shattered  nation?  ^^^len  in  her  throes 
she  brings  forth  heroes,  our  INIother  Country 
gives  her  o^vn  energj'^  to  the  blood  of  those 
sons  of  hers.  Let  us  acknowledge  that  we 
needed  a  lesson  in  patriotism.  There  were  Bel- 
gians, and  many  such,  who  wasted  their  time 
and  their  talents  in  futile  quarrels  of  class  with 
class,  of  race  with  race,  of  j)assion  with  per- 
sonal passion. 

Yet  when,  on  tlie  second  of  August,  a 
mighty  foreign  power,  confident  in  its  owa 
strength  and  defiant  of  the  faith  of  treaties, 
dared  to  threaten  us  in  our  independence,  then 
did  all  Belgians,  without  difference  of  party, 
or  of  condition,  or  of  origin,  rise  up  as  one 
man,  close-ranged  about  their  own  king,  and 
their  own  government,  and  cry  to  the  invader: 
*'  Thou  shalt  not  go  through! " 

At  once,  instantly,  we  were  conscious  of  our 
own  patriotism.     For  down  M^ilhin  us  all  is 

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Patriotism  and  Endurance 

something  deeper  than  personal  interests,  than 
personal  kinships,  than  party  feeling,  and  this 
is  the  need  and  the  will  to  devote  ourselves  to 
that  more  general  interest  which  Rome  termed 
the  public  thing.  Res  puhlica.  And  this  pro- 
found will  within  us  is  Patriotism. 

Our  covmtry  is  not  a  mere  concourse  of  per- 
sons or  of  families  dwelling  on  the  same  soil, 
having  amongst  themselves  relations,  more  or 
less  intimate,  of  business,  of  neighborhood, 
of  a  community  of  memories,  happy  or  un- 
happy. Not  so;  it  is  an  association  of  living 
souls  subject  to  a  social  organization  to  be 
defended  and  safeguarded  at  all  costs,  even  the 
cost  of  blood,  under  the  leadership  of  those 
presiding  over  its  fortunes.  And  it  is  because 
of  this  general  spirit  that  the  people  of  a  coun- 
try live  a  common  life  in  the  present,  through 
the  past,  through  the  aspirations,  the  hopes, 
the  confidence  in  a  life  to  come,  which  they 
share  together.  Patriotism,  an  internal  princi- 
ple of  order  and  of  unity,  an  organic  bond  of 
the  members  of  a  nation  was  placed  by  the 

227 


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finest  thinkers  of  Greece  and  Rome  at  the  head 
of  the  natural  virtues.  Aristotle,  the  prince 
of  the  philosophers  of  Antiquity,  held  disinter- 
ested service  of  the  C'l^y  —  that  is,  the  State  — 
to  be  the  very  ideal  of  human  duty.  And  the 
religion  of  Christ  makes  of  patriotism  a  posi- 
tive law;  there  is  no  perfect  Christian  who  is 
not  also  a  perfect  patriot.  For  our  religion 
exalts  the  pagan  ideal,  showing  it  to  be  realiza- 
ble only  in  the  Absolute.  AAHience,  in  truth, 
comes  this  universal,  this  irresistible  impulse 
which  carries  at  once  the  will  of  the  whole 
nation  in  one  single  effort  of  cohesion  and  of 
resistance  in  face  of  the  hostile  menace  against 
her  unity  and  her  freedom?  Whence  comes  it 
that  in  an  hour  all  interests  were  merged  in 
the  interest  of  all,  and  that  all  lives  were  to- 
gether offered  in  willing  immolation?  Not 
that  the  State  is  worth  more,  essentially,  than 
the  individual  or  the  family,  seeing  that  the 
good  of  the  family  and  of  the  individual  is  the 
cause  and  reason  of  the  organization  of  the 
State.     Not  that  our  country  is  a  Moloch  on 

228 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

whose  altar  lives  may  lawfully  be  sacrificed. 
The  rigidity  of  pagan  morals  and  the  despot- 
ism of  the  Caesars  suggested  the  false  principle 
—  and  modern  militarism  tends  to  revive  it  — 
that  the  State  is  omnipotent,  and  that  the  dis- 
cretionary power  of  the  State  is  the  rule  of 
Right.  Not  so,  replies  Christian  theology. 
Right  is  Peace,  that  is,  the  interior  order  of 
a  nation,  founded  upon  Justice.  And  Justice 
itself  is  absolute  only  because  it  formulates 
the  essential  relation  of  man  with  God  and 
of  man  with  man.  Moreover,  war  for  the  sake 
of  war  is  a  crime.  War  is  justifiable  only  if  it 
is  the  necessary  means  for  securing  peace.  Sto 
Augustine  has  said:  "Peace  must  not  be  a 
preparation  for  war.  And  war  is  not  to  be 
made  except  for  the  attainment  of  peace."  In 
the  light  of  this  teaching,  which  is  repeated  by 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  Patriotism  is  seen  in  its 
religious  character.  Family  interests,  class  in- 
terests, party  interests,  and  the  material  good 
of  the  individual  take  their  place,  in  the  scale 
of  values,  below  the  ideal  of  Patriotism,  for 

229 


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that  ideal  is  Right,  which  is  absolute.  Further- 
more, that  ideal  is  the  public  recognition  of 
Eight  in  national  matters,  and  of  national 
Honor.  Xow  there  is  no  Absolute  except 
Gk)d.  God  alone,  bj^  His  sanctity  and  His 
sovereignty,  dominates  all  human  interests  and 
human  "wills.  xVnd  to  affirm  the  absolute 
necessity  of  the  subordination  of  all  things  to 
Right,  to  Justice,  and  to  Truth,  is  implicith^  to 
affirm  God. 

Wlien,  therefore,  humble  soldiers  whose 
heroism  we  praise  answer  us  with  character- 
istic simplicity,  **  We  only  did  our  duty,"  or 
*'We  were  bound  in  honor,"  they  express  the 
religious  character  of  their  Patriotism.  "\\niicH 
of  us  docs  not  feel  that  Patriotism  is  a  sacred 
thing,  and  that  a  violation  of  national  dignity 
is  in  a  manner  a  profanation  and  a  sacrilege. 

I  was  asked  lately  by  a  Staff  officer  whether 
a  soldier  falling  in  a  righteous  cause  —  and  our 
cause  is  such,  to  demonstration  —  is  not  vcrit- 
a])ly  a  martyr.  Well,  he  is  not  a  martyr  in  the 
rigorous  theological  meaning  of  the  word,  inas- 

230 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

much  as  he  dies  in  arms,  whereas  the  martyr 
delivers  himself,  undefended  and  unarmed, 
into  the  hands  of  the  executioner.  But  if  I  am 
asked  what  I  think  of  the  eternal  salvation  of  a 
brave  man  who  has  consciously  given  his  life 
in  defence  of  his  country's  honor,  and  in  vin- 
dication of  violated  justice,  I  shall  not  hesitate 
to  reply  that  without  any  doubt  whatever 
Christ  cro^vns  his  military  valour,  and  that 
death,  accepted  in  this  Christian  spirit,  assures 
the  safety  of  that  man's  soul. 

"  Greater  love  than  this  no  man  hath,"  said 
Our  Saviour,  "  than  a  man  lay  do\vn  his  life 
for  his  friends."  And  the  soldier  who  dies 
to  save  his  brothers,  and  to  defend  the  hearths 
and  altars  of  his  country,  reaches  this  highest 
of  all  degrees  of  charity.  He  may  not  have 
made  a  close  analysis  of  the  value  of  his  sacri- 
fice; but  must  we  suppose  that  God  requires 
of  the  plain  soldier  in  the  excitement  of  battle 
the  methodical  precision  of  the  moralist  or  the 
theologian?  Can  we  who  revere  his  heroism 
doubt  that  his  God  welcomes  him  with  love? 

231 


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Christian  mothers,  be  proud  of  your  sons. 
Of  all  griefs,  of  all  our  human  sorrows,  yours 
is  perhaps  the  most  worthy  of  veneration.  I 
think  I  behold  you  in  j'our  affliction,  but  erect, 
standing  at  the  side  of  the  ^lother  of  Sorrows, 
at  the  foot  of  the  Cross.  Suffer  us  to  offer  you 
not  onlj''  our  condolence  but  our  congratula- 
tion. Not  all  our  heroes  obtain  temporal  hon- 
ors, but  for  all  we  expect  the  immortal  crown 
of  the  elect.  For  this  is  the  virtue  of  a  single 
act  of  perfect  charity:  it  cancels  a  whole  life- 
time of  sins.  It  transforms  a  sinful  man  into 
a  saint. 

Assuredly  a  great  and  a  Christian  comfort 
is  the  thought  that  not  only  amongst  our  own 
men,  but  in  any  belligerent  army  whatsoever, 
all  who  in  good  faith  submit  to  the  discipline 
of  their  leaders  in  the  service  of  a  cause  they 
believe  to  be  righteous,  are  sharers  in  the 
eternal  reward  of  the  soldier's  sacrifice.  And 
how  many  may  there  not  be  among  these  young 
men  of  twenty  who,  had  they  survived,  might 
possibly  not  have  had  the  resolution  to  lire 

2;V2 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

altogether   well,   and   yet   in   the  impulse   of 
patriotism  had  the  resolution  to  die  so  well? 

Is  it  not  true,  my  Brethren,  that  God  has 
the  supreme  art  of  mingling  His  mercy  with 
His  wisdom  and  His  justice?  And  shall  we 
not  acknowledge  that  if  war  is  a  scourge  for 
this  earthly  life  of  ours,  a  scourge  whereof  we 
cannot  easily  estimate  the  destructive  force  and 
the  extent,  it  is  also  for  multitudes  of  souls 
an  expiation,  a  purification,  a  force  to  lift 
them  to  the  pure  love  of  their  country  and  to 
perfect  Christian  unselfishness? 

ENDURANCE 

We  may  now  say,  my  Brethren,  without  un- 
worthy pride,  that  our  little  Belgium  has  taken 
a  foremost  place  in  the  esteem  of  nations.  I 
am  aware  that  certain  onlookers,  notably  in 
Italy  and  in  Holland,  have  asked  how  it  could 
be  necessary  to  expose  this  country  to  so  im- 
mense a  loss  of  wealth  and  of  life,  and  whether 
a  verbal  manifesto  against  hostile  aggression, 
or  a  single  cannon-shot  on  the  frontier,  would 

233 


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not  have  served  the  purpose  of  protest.  But 
assured!}^  all  men  of  good  feeling  will  be  with 
us  in  our  rejection  of  these  paltry  counsels. 
INIcre  utilitarianism  is  no  sufficient  rule  of 
Christian  citizenship. 

On  the  19th  of  April,  1839,  a  treaty  was 
signed  in  London  by  Leoi^old,  in  the  name  of 
Belgium,  on  the  one  part,  and  by  the  Emperor 
of  Austria,  the  King  of  France,  the  Queen  of 
England,  the  King  of  Prussia  and  the  Em- 
peror of  Russia  on  the  other;  and  its  seventh 
article  decreed  that  Belgium  should  form  a 
separate  and  perpetually  neutral  State,  and 
should  be  held  to  the  observance  of  this  neu- 
trality in  regard  to  all  other  States.  The  co- 
signatories promised,  for  themselves  and  their 
successors,  upon  their  oaths,  to  fulfil  and  to 
observe  that  treaty  in  every  point  and  every 
article  without  contravention,  or  tolerance  of 
contravention.  Belgium  was  thus  bound  in 
honor  to  defend  her  o^^^l  independence.  She 
kept  her  oatli.  The  other  Powers  were  bound 
to  respect  and  also  to  ])rotect  her  neutrality. 

234. 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

Germany  violated  her  oath;  England  kept 
hers. 

These  are  the  facts. 

The  laws  of  conscience  are  sovereign  laws. 
We  should  have  acted  unworthily  had  we 
evaded  our  obligation  by  a  mere  feint  of  resist- 
ance. And  now  we  would  not  rescind  our  first 
resolution;  we  exult  in  it.  Being  called  upon 
to  write  a  most  solemn  page  in  the  history  of 
our  countrj'',  we  resolve  that  it  shall  also  be  sin- 
cere, and  glorious.  As  long  as  we  are  required  to 
give  proof  of  endurance,  so  long  we  shall  endure. 

All  classes  of  our  citizens  have  devoted  their 
sons  to  the  cause  of  their  country;  but  the 
poorer  part  of  the  population  have  set  the 
noblest  example,  for  they  have  suffered  also 
privation,  cold,  and  famine.  If  I  may  judge 
of  the  general  feeling  from  what  I  have  wit- 
nessed in  the  humbler  quarters  of  jNIalines,  and 
in  the  most  cruelly  afflicted  districts  of  my 
diocese,  the  people  are  energetic  in  their  endur- 
ance. They  look  to  be  righted;  they  will  not 
hear  of  surrender. 

235 


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Affliction  is,  in  the  hand  of  Divine  Omnipo- 
tence, a  two-edged  sword.  It  wounds  the  re- 
bellious, it  sanctifies  him  who  is  willing  to 
endure. 

God  proveth  us,  as  St.  James  has  told  us, 
but  He  "  is  not  a  tempter  of  evils."  All  that 
comes  from  Him  is  good,  a  ray  of  light,  a 
pledge  of  love.  "  But  every  man  is  tempted 
b}"  his  o'WTi  concupiscence.  .  .  .  Blessed  is  he 
that  endurcth  temptation,  for  when  he  hath 
been  proved  he  shall  receive  the  cro^^^l  of  life, 
which  God  hath  promised  to  them  that  love 
Him." 

A  truce,  then,  my  Brethren,  to  all  murmurs 
of  complaint.  Remember  St.  Paul's  words  to 
the  Hebrews,  and  through  them  to  all  of 
Christ's  flock,  when,  referring  to  the  bloody 
sacrifice  of  Our  Lord  upon  the  cross  he  re- 
minded them  that  they  had  yet  resisted  unto 
blood.  Xot  only  to  the  Redeemer's  example 
shall  you  look  but  also  to  that  of  the  thirty 
thousand,  perhaps  forty  thousand,  men  who 
have  already  shed  their  life-blood  for  their 

236 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

country.  In  comparison  with  them  what  have 
you  endured  who  are  deprived  of  the  daily  com- 
forts of  your  lives,  your  newspapers,  your 
means  of  travel,  communication  with  your 
families?  Let  the  patriotism  of  our  army,  the 
heroism  of  our  King,  of  our  beloved  Queen 
in  her  magnanimity,  serve  to  stimulate  us  and 
support  us.  Let  us  bemoan  ourselves  no  more. 
Let  us  deserve  the  coming  deliverance.  Let  us 
hasten  it  by  our  virtue  even  more  than  by  our 
prayers.  Courage,  Brethren.  Suffering 
passes  away;  the  cro^vn  of  life  for  our  souls, 
the  crown  of  glory  for  our  nation,  shall  not 
pass. 

I  do  not  require  of  you  to  renounce  any  of 
your  national  desires.  On  the  contrary,  I  hold 
it  as  part  of  the  obligations  of  my  episcopal 
office  to  instruct  j^ou  as  to  your  dutj""  in  face 
of  the  Power  that  has  invaded  our  soil  and  now 
occupies  the  greater  part  of  our  country.  The 
authority  of  that  Power  is  no  lawful  authority. 
Therefore,  in  soul  and  conscience  you  owe  it 
neither  respect,  nor  attachment,  nor  obedience. 

237 


Mercier 

The  sole  lawful  authority  in  Belgium  is  that 
of  our  King,  of  our  Government,  of  the 
elected  representatives  of  the  nation.  This  au- 
thority alone  has  a  right  to  our  affection,  our 
submission. 

Thus,  the  invader's  acts  of  public  adminis- 
tration have  in  themselves  no  authoritj^  but 
legitimate  authority  has  tacitly  ratified  such 
of  those  acts  as  affect  the  general  interest,  and 
this  ratification,  and  this  only,  gives  them 
juridic  value. 

Occupied  provinces  are  not  conquered  prov- 
inces. Belgium  is  no  more  a  German  province 
than  Galicia  is  a  Russian  i:)rovince.  Never- 
theless the  occupied  jDortion  of  our  country  is 
in  a  position  it  is  compelled  to  endure.  The 
greater  part  of  our  toA\Tis,  having  surrendered 
to  the  enemy  on  conditions,  are  bound  to  ob- 
serve those  conditions.  From  tlic  outset  of 
military  operations  the  civil  authorities  of  the 
country  urged  upon  all  private  persons  the 
necessity  of  abstention  from  hostile  acts 
against  the  enemy's  nnny.     That  instruction 

238 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

remains  in  force.  It  is  our  army,  and  our 
army  solely,  in  league  with  the  valiant  troops 
of  our  Allies  that  has  the  honor  and  the  duty 
of  national  defence.  Let  us  entrust  the  army 
with  our  final  deliverance. 

Towards  the  persons  of  those  who  are  hold- 
ing dominion  among  us  by  military  force,  and 
who  assuredly  cannot  but  be  sensible  of  the 
chivalrous  energy  with  which  we  have  de- 
fended, and  are  still  defending,  our  independ- 
ence, let  us  conduct  ourselves  with  all  needful 
forbearance.  Some  among  them  have  declared 
themselves  willing  to  mitigate,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, the  severity  of  our  situation  and  to  help 
us  to  recover  some  minimum  of  regular  civic 
life.  Let  us  observe  the  rules  they  have  laid 
upon  us  so  long  as  those  rules  do  not  violate 
our  personal  liberty,  nor  our  consciences  as 
Christians,  nor  our  duty  to  our  country.  Let" 
us  not  take  bravado  for  courage,  nor  tumult 
for  bravery. 

You  especially,  my  dearest  Brethren  in  the 
Priesthood,  be  you  at  once  the  best  examples 

239 


Mercier 

of  Patriotism  and  the  best  supporters  of  public 
order.  On  the  field  of  battle  you  have  been 
magnificent.  The  King  and  the  Army  admire 
the  intrepidity  of  our  military  chaplains  in 
face  of  death,  their  charity  at  the  work  of  the 
ambulance.    Your  Bishops  are  jiroud  of  you. 

You  have  suffered  greatly.  You  have  en- 
dured much  calumny.  But  be  patient ;  history 
will  do  you  justice.  I  to-day  bear  my  witness 
for  you. 

Wherever  it  has  been  possible  I  have  ques- 
tioned our  people,  our  clergy,  and  particularly 
a  considerable  number  of  priests  who  had  been 
deported  to  German  prisons,  but  whom  a 
principle  of  humanity,  to  which  I  gladly  render 
homage,  has  since  set  at  liberty.  Well,  I  affirm 
upon  my  honor,  and  I  am  prepared  to  assert 
upon  faith  of  my  oath,  that  until  now  I  have 
not  met  a  single  ecclesiastic,  secular  or  regular, 
who  had  once  incited  civilians  to  bear  arms 
against  the  enemy.  All  have  loyally  followed 
the  instructions  of  their  l^ishops,  given  in  the 
early  days  of  August,  to  tlic  cfl'cct  that  they 

240 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

were  to  use  their  moral  influence  over  the  civil 
population  so  that  order  might  be  preserved 
and  military  regulations  observed. 

I  exhort  you  to  persevere  in  this  ministry 
of  peace,  which  is  for  you  the  sanest  form  of 
Patriotism;  to  accept  with  all  your  hearts  the 
privations  you  have  to  endure ;  to  simplify  still 
further,  if  it  is  possible,  your  way  of  life.  One 
of  you  who  is  reduced  by  robbery  and  pillage 
to  a  state  bordering  on  total  destitution,  said 
to  me  lately,  "  I  am  living  now  as  I  wish  I  had 
lived  always." 

Multiply  the  efforts  of  your  charity,  cor- 
poral and  spiritual.  Like  the  great  Apostle, 
do  you  endure  daily  the  cares  of  your  Church, 
so  that  no  man  shall  suffer  loss  and  you  not 
suffer  loss,  and  no  man  fall  and  you  not  burn 
with  zeal  for  him.  Make  yourselves  the  cham- 
pions of  all  those  virtues  enjoined  upon  you 
by  civic  honor  as  well  as  by  the  Gospel  of 
Christ.  *'  Whatsoever  things  are  true,  what- 
soever modest,  whatsoever  just,  whatsoever 
holy,  whatsoever  lovely,  whatsoever  of  good 

241 


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ercter 


fame,  if  there  be  any  virtue,  if  any  praise  of 
disci^Dline,  think  on  these  things."  So  may  the 
worthiness  of  our  lives  justify  us,  my  most  dear 
Colleagues,  in  repeating  the  noble  claim  of 
St.  Paul:  "  The  things  M-hich  ye  have  learned, 
and  received,  and  heard,  and  seen,  in  me,  these 
do  ye,  and  the  God  of  peace  shall  be  with  you." 

CONCLUSION 

Let  us  continue  then,  dearest  Brethren,  to 
pray,  to  do  penance,  to  attend  Holy  Mass,  and 
to  receive  Holy  Communion  for  the  sacred 
intention  of  our  dear  country.  ...  I  recom- 
mend parish  priests  to  hold  a  funeral  service 
on  behalf  of  our  fallen  soldiers,  on  every  Satur- 
day. 

^Ionej%  I  know  well,  is  scarce  with  you  all. 
Nevertheless,  if  you  have  little,  give  of  that 
little,  for  the  succour  of  those  among  your  fel- 
low coimtrymen  who  are  without  shelter, 
without  fuel,  without  suilicient  bread.  I  have 
directed  my  parish  priests  to  form  for  this 
purpose,  in  every  parish,  a  relief  committee, 

242 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

Do  you  second  them  charitably  and  convey 
to  my  hands  such  alms  as  you  can  save  from 
your  superfluity,  if  not  from  your  necessities, 
so  that  I  may  be  the  distributor  to  the  destitute 
who  are  known  to  me. 

Our  distress  has  moved  the  other  nations. 
England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland ;  France,  Hol- 
land, the  United  States,  Canada,  have  vied 
with  each  other  in  generosity  for  our  relief.  It 
is  a  spectacle  at  once  most  mournful  and  most 
noble.  Here  again  is  a  revelation  of  the  Provi- 
dential Wisdom  which  draws  good  from  evil. 
In  your  name,  my  Brethren,  and  in  my  own, 
I  offer  to  the  governments  and  the  nations  that 
have  succoured  us  the  assurance  of  our  admira- 
tion and  our  gratitude. 

With  a  touching  goodness  our  Holy  Father 
Benedict  the  Fifteenth  has  been  the  first  to 
incline  his  heart  towards  us.  Wlien,  a  few 
moments  after  his  election,  he  deigned  to  take 
me  into  his  arms,  I  was  bold  enough  there 
to  ask  that  the  first  Pontifical  Benediction 
he  spoke  should  be  given  to  Belgium,  already 

243 


Mercier 

in  deep  distress  through  the  war.  He  eagerly 
closed  with  my  wish,  which  I  laicw  would  also 
])e  yours.  To-day,  with  delicate  kindness.  His 
Holiness  has  decided  to  renounce  the  annual 
offering  of  Peter's  Pence  from  Belgium.  In 
a  letter  dated  on  the  beautiful  festival  of  the 
Immaculate  Virgin,  December  the  Eighth,  he 
assures  us  of  the  part  he  bears  in  our  suffer- 
ings, he  prays  for  us,  calls  down  upon  our 
Belgium  the  protection  of  Heaven,  and  ex- 
horts us  to  hail  in  the  then  approaching  advent 
of  the  Prince  of  Peace  the  dawn  of  better  days. 
Here  is  the  text  of  this  valued  message: 

"  To  our  dear  Son,  Desire  Mercier,  Cardinal  Priest 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  of  the  title  of  St.  Peter  in 
Chains,  Archbishop  of  Malincs,  at  Malines. 

"  Our  Bear  Son, 

HEALTH  AND  APOSTOLIC  BENEDICTION 

"  The  fatherly  solicitude  wliidi  we  feel  for  all  the 
faitliful  whom  Divine  Providence  has  entrusted  to  our 
care,  causes  us  to  sliarc  tlicir  griefs  even  more  fully  tlian 
their  joys. 

"  Could  we  then  fail  to  be  moved  by  keenest  sorrow  at 
the  sight  of  the  Belgian  nation  which  wc  so  dearly  love, 

244 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

reduced  by  a  most  cruel  and  most  disastrous  war  to  this 
lamentable  state? 

"  We  behold  the  King  and  his  august  family,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  government,  the  chief  persons  of  the  country, 
bishops,  priests,  and  a  whole  people  enduring  woes  which 
must  fill  with  pity  all  gentle  hearts,  and  which  our  own 
soul,  in  the  fervour  of  paternal  love,  must  be  the  first 
to  compassionate.  Thus,  under  the  burden  of  this  dis- 
tress and  tliis  mourning,  we  call,  in  our  prayers,  for  an 
end  to  such  misfortunes.  May  the  God  of  mercy  hasten 
the  day !  Meanwhile  we  strive  to  mitigate,  as  far  as  in 
us  lies,  this  excessive  suffering.  Therefore,  the  step 
taken  by  our  dear  Son,  Cardinal  Hartmann,  Archbishop 
of  Cologne,  at  whose  request  it  was  arranged  that  French 
or  Belgian  priests  detained  in  Germany  should  have 
the  treatment  of  officers,  gave  us  great  satisfaction,  and 
we  have  expressed  our  thanks  to  him  for  his  action. 

"As  regards  Belgium,  we  have  been  informed  that  the 
faithful  of  that  nation,  so  sorely  tried,  did  not  neglect, 
in  their  piety,  to  turn  towards  us  their  tboughts,  and 
that  even  under  the  blow  of  so  many  calamities  they 
proposed  to  gather  this  year,  as  in  all  preceding  years, 
the  offerings  to  St.  Peter,  which  supply  the  necessities 
of  the  Apostolic  See.  This  truly  incomparable  proof  of 
piety  and  of  attachment  filled  us  with  admiration;  we 
accept  it  with  all  the  affection  that  is  due  from  a  grate- 
ful heart:  but  having  regard  to  the  painful  position  in 
which  our  dear  children  are  placed,  we  cannot  bring 
ourselves  to  favour  the  fulfilment  of  that  project,  noble 
though  it  is.  If  any  alms  are  to  be  gathered,  our  wish 
is   that   the  money  should  be   entirely  devoted  to   the 

245 


Mercier 

Benefit  of  the  Belgian  people,  -who  are  as  illustrious 
by  reason  of  their  nobility  and  their  piety  as  they  are 
to-day  worthy  of  all  sympathy. 

"Amid  the  difficulties  and  anxieties  of  the  present 
hour  we  would  remind  the  sons  who  are  so  dear  to  us 
that  the  arm  of  God  is  not  shortened,  that  He  is  ever 
able  to  save,  that  His  ear  is  not  deaf  to  prayer. 

"  Let  the  hope  of  Divine  aid  increase  with  the  ap- 
proach of  the  festival  of  Christmas  and  of  the  mysteries 
that  celebrate  the  Birth  of  Our  Lord,  and  recall  that 
peace  which  God  proclaimed  to  mankind  by  His  angels. 

"  May  the  souls  of  the  suffering  and  afflicted  find 
comfort  and  consolation  in  the  assurance  of  the  paternal 
tenderness  that  prompts  our  prayers.  Yes,  may  God 
take  pity  upon  the  Belgian  people,  and  grant  them  the 
abundance  of  all  good. 

"As  a  pledge  of  these  prayers  and  good  wishes,  we 
now  grant  to  all,  and  in  the  first  place  to  you,  our  dear 
Son,  the  Apostolic  Benediction. 

"  Given  in  Rome,  by  St.  Peter's,  on  the  feast  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception  of  Our  Lady,  in  the  year 
MCMXIV,  the  first  of  our  Pontificate. 

"  Benedict  XV,  Pope." 

One  last  word,  my  dearest  Brethren.  At  the 
outset  of  tliese  troubles  I  said  to  you  that  in 
the  day  of  the  liberation  of  our  territory  we 
should  give  to  the  Saered  Heart  and  to  the 
Blessed  Virgin  a  publie  testhnony  of  our  grati- 

246 


Patriotism  and  Endurance 

tude.  Since  that  date  I  have  been  able  to  con- 
sult my  colleagues  in  the  Ex^iscopate,  and  in 
agreement  with  them,  I  now  ask  you  to  make, 
as  soon  as  possible,  a  fresh  effort  to  hasten  the 
construction  of  the  national  basilica,  promised 
by  Belgium  in  honor  of  the  Sacred  Heart. 
As  soon  as  the  sun  of  peace  shall  shine  upon 
our  country,  we  shall  redress  our  ruins,  we 
shall  restore  shelter  to  those  who  have  none, 
we  shall  rebuild  our  churches,  we  shall  recon- 
stitute our  libraries,  and  we  shall  hope  to 
crown  this  work  of  reconciliation  by  raising, 
upon  the  heights  of  the  capital  of  Belgium,  free 
and  Catholic,  that  national  basilica  of  the 
Sacred  Heart.  Furthermore,  every  year  we 
shall  make  it  our  duty  to  celebrate  solemnly, 
on  the  Friday  following  Corpus  Christi,  the 
festival  of  the  Sacred  Heart. 

Lastly,  in  every  region  of  the  diocese  the 
clergy  will  organize  an  annual  pilgrimage  of 
thanksgiving  to  one  of  the  privileged  sanctu- 
aries of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  in  order  to  pay 
especial  honour  to  the  Protectress  of  our  na- 

247 


Mercier 

tioiial  independence  and  universal  ^Icdiatrix 
of  the  Christian  commonwealth. 

The  present  letter  shall  be  read  on  the  fol- 
lowing dates  —  on  the  first  day  of  the  year 
and  on  the  Sundays  following  the  day  on  which 
it  shall  severally  reach  you. 

Accept,  my  dearest  Brethren,  my  wishes  and 
l^rayers  for  you,  and  for  the  happiness  of  your 
families,  and  receive,  I  pray  you,  n\y  paternal 
benediction. 

D.  J.  Card.  :MERCIER, 

Archbishop  of  Malines. 

BIBMOGHAPHY 

Cardinai,    Mkkcikr's   Works 

Works  of  Philosophy,  Psychology,  ami  Metaphysics 

I..1  Parole,  1888. 

l;;ii)port  sur  les  fitudes  Sup^rieures  de  Philosopliif,   \Hf)2. 

Coiirs  de  Pliilosophie,  1892. 

I,<-s  Origiru's  de   I,i    P.s\ cholopie   Conteinpor;iiiu-,    18P7    (Tran.s. 

I)y  W.  H.  Mitchell,  1!)18). 
Psvehologie     Exp<?rimentule    et     ia     Pl\ilo.sophie    Sitiriliialiste, 

1900. 
Criterioloirie  deni'Tale,  1900. 

The  Helalion  of  Kxiierimentnl  P.sycholopy  to  Philosophy,  1002. 
Mrtapliysifpie  Ci»''n<'Tnle.    1910. 
Moderni.sni   (Trans,  by  Marian  T.indsay,  1910). 
Manual   of   Modern  Scholastic  Philosophy    (Trnns.   by   Parker, 

1917). 

248 


Bibliography 


k^pec'ud  Letters  and   AOdrexses  published   by  L'Action 
Catholique  {^Brussels) 

A  Mes  Seminaristes  (16tli  thousand). 
Uetraite  Pastorale  (5th  thousand). 
Oeuvres  I'astorales,  Actes. 
Allocutions,  Letters   (2d  ed.) 
Vol.       I.     From  1906  to  lyiS. 
II.     From  1908  to  1910. 
III.     From  1910  to  1913. 
I\'.     From  Marcli,  1913,  to  July,  19U. 
V.     In  press. 
La  \ie  Interieure — Retraite  Prechee  a  ses  Pretres,  1918. 
La    Correspondence    de    S.    E.    le    Cardinal    Mercier    avcc    le 
Gouvernement  Allemand  pendant  TOccupalion   (1911-1918); 
published  by  Albert  Dewit,  Brussels,  1919. 

A  complete  and  authoritative  edition  of  the  war-time  pastoral 
letters  is  in  preparation  by  M.  Uessain,  Malines. 


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